Watch: National Science Foundation Video on Nanocardboard Flyers

Earlier this year, a research team led by Igor Bargatin, Class of 1965 Term Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, published a new study that demonstrated how their “nanocardboard” plates can lift tiny payloads into the air.

Nanocardboard consists of aluminum oxide walls that are corrugated like its paper-based namesake, but which are only a few nanometers thick. Despite having no moving parts, nanocardboard can fly; heating one side of the hollow plate gets air shooting out of its corrugated channels, lifting it off of the ground.

Now, the National Science Foundation explains how these tiny aircraft might be used to explore other worlds:

Read more about Bargatin’s latest study here.