As if being in awe of talented climbers like Alex Honnold and Alain Robert wasn’t enough, there’s now a robot that can also put the average climber’s skills to shame.

It was engineers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory who released a video of the first-ever rock climbing robot, named LEMUR IIB. The debut of the video was at the International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, which summed up a year of work by the researchers, where they designed a micro-spine gripping system that can attach to rock.

The initial idea was that the technology could be used as a handheld tool by astronauts while sampling soil and rock on the Moon or Mars. Plans soon changed when researchers discovered it wouldn’t be all that challenging to combine the new micro-gripper with the LEMUR IIB robot body. The end product is a four-legged robot that is able to scale any flat rock surface.

Check out the video below that details how the robot works.

According to an article published on Engineering.com, “Key to the success of the micro-gripper are the two actuators and 750 micro-spines that make up each circular foot. According to the video, as the robot places its appendage on a rocky surface ‘torsion springs push the claw into the rock’ and ‘an engagement actuator draws the claws inward through a network of springs that allow the claws to independently find rough spots to grip.’ Once engaged, the robotic claw is then capable of lifting up to 15 kg (35 pounds) on the most porous volcanic rock.”

Although the robot can scale inverted, vertical and slanted walls, JPL researchers agreed there is a lot of work that still needs to be done. So far, the legs of the robot only have three degrees of freedom, which translates into only being able to cover relatively flat surfaces. It also has to be connected to a controller that is nearby. The video explained that at the moment the main goal is safety, rather than speed.

The researchers did agree that improvements will continue to be made, and the creation of this robot could provide a number of possibilities, and not just at NASA.

“And while it’s eventually destined to explore celestial bodies as they’re passing through our solar system, if NASA straps a live streaming camera to the back of this little bot and sends it up Mount Everest, I’m sure millions of wannabe mountaineers would eagerly tune in,” a Gizmodo article stated.

Image is a screenshot from video by BotJunkie on YouTube