A robot dog designed by Boston Dynamics and nicknamed Spot has been sent to two Cold War weapons testing facilities in hopes of discovering their secrets. The facilities were built in 1960 and were used to conduct environmental tests of the atomic bomb.
Failure of a test could have resulted in a catastrophic explosion, and so the laboratories were designed to absorb such a blast if one happened. Even if no nuclear material was used during the tests, because of the decay of the facilities, they are not safe for humans to explore, which is why Spot’s job is to dive in.
This is only the first in a series of planned tests, and in time it is hoped that the interiors of these buildings can be reconstructed. There are plans for these robots to explore more historic sites in the future and let us recapture some of the architectural secrets of the past.
Thank you, BBC.