The team at
Go Lab came up with the idea for an asteroid mapper as an entry in the NASA Space Apps Challenge. The MapperBot is made up of a cubesat that houses a camera, 12 mini processors, and a micro ion thruster system. The cubesat will launch from a larger satellite and fly by an asteroid, snapping detailed 3D pictures of the asteroid's surface with a Lytro camera. The thruster system charges and vaporizes the metal of the frame of the cubesat, shooting off ions and allowing for surprising maneuverability without the need to carry a bulkier thruster system (the cubesats are meant to be cheap and disposable). The info gathered from these asteroid flybys will be sent back to NASA, where it'll be turned into a 3D map. From there, scientists will determine whether that particular asteroid is suitable for capture. The Go Labbers at Maker Faire attached their camera to a drone for audience demos.