James McLurkin Footage, MV 603.4
name: label: Collection Creator
content: Jerome and Dorothy Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation.
label: Collection Inventor
content: Massie, Thomas
label: Collection Inventor
content: McLurkin, James
setName: label: See more items in
content: Massie/McLurkin Innovative Lives Presentation and Interviews
label: See more items in
content: Massie/McLurkin Innovative Lives Presentation and Interviews / Series 2: Master Videos
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1997-05
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives Center, National Museum of American History
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: James McLurkin Footage

TRT: 30:00

Footage of McLurkin at MIT lab using equipment in the machine shop and building ants.  McLurkin's latest project is to build robots for exploring the planet Mars called "rockettes."  Working in conjunction with NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab, the rockette's would bring back rock samples and collect other types of data that could be transmitted by video or sent to a main rover that could then transmit to Earth. Describes how rockette's differ from his microrobots.  Discusses his work with "hopping" robots that would hop over obstacles. The goal is to have the robots hop at least a foot. McLurkin is studying nature to better understand how insects—such as dragon flies and crickets— work and how it can inform his work.  The next step in McLurkin's career is to go to graduate school at the University of California at Berkley to study electrical engineering as well as additional course work in physics, biology, science and math.