Gecko Inspires New Robot Grippers for Use in Space

These new grippers could grab and hold floating objects in microgravity, which is not an easy thing to do since many chemical adhesives don’t work in the various temperatures in space, and suction doesn’t work in a vacuum. Researchers hope these new grippers will eventually help robots move space junk to safer, higher orbits or help robots maneuver outside spacecraft. The grippers are inspired by geckos’ amazing gripping ability, and can move objects many times their size in the conditions of space.

Learn more about geckos and their amazing feet in the Answers magazine article “Gecko Feet—Best Foot Forward.”

Professor Stuart Burgess, a professor of engineering design at the University of Bristol (UK) and a speaker for Answers in Genesis—UK, says of this exciting innovation,

Gecko feet are excellent at gripping due to tiny hairs that create molecular forces that grip onto surfaces. Space engineers are copying the design of gecko feet in order to create better grippers for astronauts to use in space. This is yet another example of engineers copying design in creation because they are the best designs. The superiority of design in nature provides great support for creation.

Professor Burgess is right. The design we see in nature (even though we acknowledge a “groaning creation” that’s been affected by sin, as taught in Genesis 3:14–19 and Romans 8:22) is so much better than anything we humans can think up. Doesn’t it make sense that a Designer was behind everything we see and not naturalistic processes blindly acting over millions of years? The remarkable—and far superior—design in nature bears witness to the One who created it all, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken

This item was written with the assistance of AiG’s research team.