Cyborg Cockroaches Walk Underwater for 3 Hours in Diving Suits, Opening Path to Mars Tests
Updated
Updated · New Scientist · Jun 26
Cyborg Cockroaches Walk Underwater for 3 Hours in Diving Suits, Opening Path to Mars Tests
3 articles · Updated · New Scientist · Jun 26
Summary
Researchers at NTU Singapore equipped remote-controlled Madagascar hissing cockroaches with 3D-printed diving suits, letting them walk underwater for up to 3 hours at depths of 50 centimeters.
The suit seals abdominal spiracles from water and feeds oxygen to thorax spiracles through hoses, using a hydrogen peroxide-manganese dioxide reaction instead of a pressurized tank.
Movement stayed close to normal: average speed fell only from 87.5 millimeters per second on land to 78.4 underwater, and all 5 monitored insects remained healthy three days later.
The advance targets flooded disaster zones that earlier cyborg roaches could not search, extending a program that showed remote control in 2021 and coordinated swarms of 20 insects in 2024.
Sato's team now plans vacuum, radiation and temperature tests for possible space use, though Mars missions would face planetary-contamination concerns from Earth microbes.
Can cyborg cockroaches survive Mars' extreme conditions to become our first off-world explorers?
Could these cyborg rescuers pose unforeseen biological risks in disaster zones or on other planets?
What are the ethical costs of turning living creatures into disposable search-and-rescue tools?
2024’s Underwater Cyborg Cockroaches: Engineering, Ethics, and the Future of Biohybrid Robotics
Overview
In 2024, researchers led by Professor Shinjiro Umezu achieved a major breakthrough by creating underwater cyborg cockroaches. This innovation, published in Nature Communications, introduced a new class of biohybrid insects that can operate underwater for hours, overcoming barriers that once limited their use. The team solved a complex engineering challenge by designing a lightweight, flexible suit that generates oxygen, allowing the cockroaches to move naturally underwater. This technology opens new possibilities for search-and-rescue missions in flooded areas and sets the stage for future applications, including space exploration, by combining biological agility with advanced engineering.