NASA’s DARPA Robot Explodes After Battery Failure

By Mara Anton

Posted on October 28, 2016

Lithium-ion batteries are giving a lot of headaches to a lot of folks these days. After the disaster they caused for Samsung devices, they’re starting to do damage where you’d least expect: in NASA labs. The victim: a DARPA robot #machinemagic

This time, NASA’s office of Safety and Mission Assurance was the one to reveal that they have witnessed four explosions and a number of incidents provoked by batteries in the last decade. The most recent one was caught on tape and sent online for everyone to see. A fire in the Jet Propulsion Lab put an end to a DARPA RoboSimian droid before it could be tested.

The batteries weren’t the only ones to blame, though. It seems that test engineers failed to power a management system – no safety equipment was on site and no idea on how to tackle the fire efficiently.

Guys, it might be time to learn how to survive a battery-induced fire at home, just like we learned how to stay safe during an earthquake…

Check the complete footage from the explosion here. 

NASA’s DARPA Robot Explodes After Battery Failure