NASA's 12-Tetrahedron Walker (or 12-TET Walker) is a Martian rover designed for traversing rough terrain, such as rocky expanses and narrow ravines. These types of terrain have proved difficult for traditional wheel-based rovers on past missions to Mars. The 12-TET Walker is shaped like a cube and consists of twelve tetrahedrons. The 12-TET Walker has 8 exterior nodes and a central node for carrying the mission payload. Twenty-six struts connect the exterior nodes and central node. The 12- TET Walker moves by extending and contracting these struts in a specific sequence. The 8 exterior nodes also have piezoelectric sensors to detect when the nodes contact the terrain. The 12-TET Walker's critical design requirement is that it has the ability to quickly navigate any type of Martian terrain. The 12-TET Walker thus needs to apply different movement strategies, such as stretching across ravines, climbing cliffs, and quadrupedal walking, depending on the terrain type. Many 12-TET Walkers could accompany unmanned and/or manned missions to Mars. Such 12-TET Walker swarms could rapidly survey massive regions of Mars, searching for clues about Martian history or essential mission resources.

Dr. Kirk Ogaard received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in computer science from the University of North Dakota (UND) in 1999 and 2008, respectively. He graduated with the first Ph.D. in scientific computing from UND in 2012. His postdoctoral research was at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland.