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[MUSIC]

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Student: My question is how fast 
is the fastest robot?

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Tom McCarthy: Well, it turns out 
there is actually some pretty

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fast robots out there. 
There's actually a running

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robot, a cheetah, a robot that's 
faster than Usain Bolts.

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So, over 28 miles an hour. 
Student: My question is why are

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moon rovers and mars rovers so 
slow?

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McCarthy: So the reason why the 
Moon and Mars rovers is so slow

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is because they have to carry 
all of their energy on board

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through batteries, or they have 
to convert, uh, electrical power

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from the sun in some cases and 
store it.

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And they go slow to conserve 
that energy.

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They don't, if they go really 
fast they'll burn up all their

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energy quickly, and then it 
takes a long time for them to

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charge. 
So they meter out their

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performance over a long period 
of time.

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Joan Cartan-Hansen: For more 
information about robotics,

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check out the science trek 
website.

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You'll find it at science trek 
dot org