Mars Rover Replica Built By Young Sisters!

13-year-old Camille and 11-year-old Genevieve Beatty are two young sisters who have built a working replica of the Mars Rover for the New York Hall of Science!

When she was just 11, older sister Camille started taking machinery apart, wondering how it worked. She found the circuit boards and wiring inside the machines amazing, and was extremely curious as to how it all worked.

When she would ask her dad, Robert Beatty, how these machines operated, he tried his best to explain, but he realized he didn't know much about the machinery himself.

Eventually, he suggested that Camille start creating inventions of her own, rather than just deconstructing things.

When Camille wanted to make her first robot, she invited her then 9-year-old younger sister, Genevieve, to join in.

Rather than building their projects for them, Robert Beatty decided to encourage their curiosity and learn and create things on their own.

"One of my main goals in this was to give them a sense of self-empowerment," Robert Beatty explains in the video. "If they set up a goal, they can go and do it, whether it's a job or climbing a mountain or building a robot."

With the help of their dad and the internet, the Beatty sisters learned how to work with electronics. They were first inspired to build a robot based on one of the droids from the Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

Though their invention didn't end up looking exactly like the droid, they were still extremely proud of themselves. The robot was named I.C. 12, and was built so the girls could control the robot from their iPhones.

After I.C. 12, the girls were hooked and continued to build more and more robots.

Eventually, the New York Hall of Science came to Genevieve, Camille and their father and commissioned them to build a Mars Rover robot replica for an exhibit.

"To have two young girls building our mars rover is exactly the kind of thing we want to have happening here," said Dr. Margaret Honey, President and CEO of the New York Hall Of Science.

The robot they build from scratch, assembled from 750 parts, is Genevieve's favorite so far. It has includes sensors that prevent it from bumping into walls, and wheels that can drive over obstacles.

Watch the awesome video of the Beatty sisters' story and their rover below!

What kind of robot would you want to build? Join us at Sweety High to share the subjects you're passionate about!