NASA Astronaut Journal, Mars, 2034:

The latest spacecraft sent to us is more a living thing than a robot. Shortly after launch from Earth, the tiny capsule blossomed into a sail and rode the solar wind to Mars. On the way, a meteoroid punched a hole in the sail, but surrounding material flowed in and closed the tear. Upon arrival, the spacecraft shrunk more than 100 times its volume to return to the safety of its capsule. After the capsule took the heat from entry into the Martian atmosphere, the thing emerged again, forming a parasail to float gently to the Martian surface, covering the rocks like a blanket. Now it moves like a giant amoeba over the rugged terrain, flowing around large rocks and over small ones, and growing stalks that carry instruments. Yesterday, it found evidence of an ancient sea. It grew an antenna and transmitted the observations to an orbiting spacecraft, which relayed the data to our Martian base. In a few weeks, we'll mount an expedition for a closer look at the area…

Engineers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., took the first step toward this scenario with the successful test of a shape-shifting robotic pyramid. As the engineers watched like anxious new parents, the robot pyramid traveled across the floor of a lab at NASA Goddard. Robots of this type will eventually be miniaturized and joined together to form "autonomous nanotechnology swarms" (ANTS) that alter their shape to flow over rocky terrain or to create useful structures like communications antennae and solar sails.

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