Seems like humans won’t be the first ones to explore Mars, as NASA is planning to send robotic bees to the planet first and they are calling them ‘Marsbees’.

Engineers are working to develop swarms of robotic bees that can fly over the Red Planet’s surface and collect data and communicate with a mobile exploration base. NASA made a team at the University of Alabama that worked together with team of Japanese scientists for developing these micro-sized robots.

As NASA explains, the Marsbees would be launched by a rover that will also act as a mobile base and a recharging station. The bees would be shaped just like normal bumblebees and will have wing structures like that of cicadas. With the help of their wings, the bees would be able to fly high enough to hover around in the Martian atmosphere.

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NASA explained few advantages of the bees including that they would be a much lighter payload, which in turn will help scientists set up more robots for Mars for collection of data. Secondly, since Marsbees would work in mini-swarms, it won’t be a great loss if one of them gets destroyed. These bees could also cover a greater area in much less time while carrying out numerous different tasks at the same time, reported BGR.

Chang-kwon Kang from the University of Alabama explained, “The Marsbees are integrated with sensors and wireless communication devices. The mobile base can act as a recharging station and main communication center. The swarm of Marsbee can significantly enhance the Mars exploration mission with the three benefits - facilitating reconfigurable sensor networks, creation of resilient systems and sample or data collection using single or collaborative Marsbees.”

Business Insider reported that the Marsbees are still in their first phase and finally deploying them on research missions is still years away from becoming a reality.