Researchers at NASA and the University of California at Berkeley have been working on a robot that's robust enough to be dropped directly onto planets and go straight to work.

Current missions to Mars have been very complex especially while using parachutes for guiding robots and their delicate scientific instruments down to the surface.

In 2012, things were more high-tech, as the space agency used a hovering platform for lowering the Mars Rover onto the planet.

Contrary to it, prototypes of the new robot are quite similar to something a child might make in a craft class but what it lacks in the terms of appearance, more than that it makes up for in physics.

The new device will have six rods, linked with 24 cables, and will be under a mix of tension and compression, making the device incredibly resilient to impacts.

Adrian Agogino, a scientist working at NASA Ames research center, said, "We've decided that these structures are so strong that they can actually withstand the landing at 30 miles an hour without any additional support".

Agogino added that there will be no additional airbags, no additional landing support, and that the entire thing could actually land on Titan and then, as an active structure, could roll around like a rover.

Agogino stated that researchers have been thinking about using such so-called tensegrity structures for some time, but have lacked complex computer algorithms that can model how they work. But, these are now available, with encouraging results.

The robots will be robust enough to survive a drop onto a planet, which means they will have robust enough to roll around a planet's surface without getting into trouble.

These days, the robots are carefully controlled because even a small mistake could halt a multimillion-dollar research program.