NASA's Robot Snake Will Slither Across Saturn's Icy Moon In Search Of Life

NASA has created an autonomous robot snake to explore extreme terrain on alien space bodies. The robot snake, created by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) comes with a propulsion system of its own, allowing it to go into uncharted territories.

The robot is called Exobiology Extant Life Surveyor (EELS) and was designed to find life on Saturn's icy moon Enceladus, one of the planet's 83 moons. When the Cassini spacecraft sent back images of Enceladus to Earth about two decades ago, scientists saw that it was hiding a salty ocean of liquid water beneath its crust.

The moon is constantly spraying plumes of icy particles and organic chemicals into space. Scientists were intrigued by the vents from which these plumes were originating, leading to the development of EELS. Its construction began in 2019 and since 2022, the team has been performing monthly field tests to improve the robot's hardware and software so that it may operate autonomously.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

The robot snake that slithers on alien lands

In its current proposed form, EELS will be 4 metre long and weigh 100 kg. With its 10 identical, rotating segments that propel themselves using screw heads, the robot snake can reach terrains that may be otherwise difficult to reach. For different terrains, the EELS team has experimented with different screws, including 3D-printed plastic screws (for easier terrain) and metal ones (for icy terrain).

EELS has been tested on a snowy "robot playground" in a Californian ski resort so far, in addition to an indoor ice rink and sand. EELS needs to be able to operate autonomously, considering how difficult it is to establish continuous communication with an object so far in space.

Also read: James Webb Telescope Learns Astonishing Things About Saturn's Moon Titan

"Imagine a car driving autonomously, but there are no stop signs, no traffic signals, not even any roads," said Rohan Thakker, EELS' autonomy lead. "The robot has to figure out what the road is and try to follow it. Then it needs to go down a 100-feet [30-m] drop and not fall."

NASA/JPL-Caltech

The EELS robot snake will be equipped with four pairs of stereo cameras and LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) to create a 3D map of its surroundings. Based on LiDAR information that will help it understand the distance to any object, the robot will create navigation algorithms to move freely.

Also read: Saturn Is Currently Eating Its Own Rings, The Standout Feature Of Our Solar System

NASA/JPL-Caltech

Scientists hope to finish the robot by autumn next year, and it may also be used on other planets and space bodies for exploration purposes.

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