NASA plans to send a snake-shaped robot to one of Saturn’s moons, in search of traces of life there.
NASA is developing the robot as the Exolife Biology Survey, a mobile instrument platform that is designed to explore interior terrain structures, assess whether organisms can live in those structures, and search for evidence of life.
The new robot has highly developed technologies that enable it to explore the deepest areas that were previously inaccessible, according to the agency’s website.
NASA has been working on this project since the discovery of a liquid ocean under the icy crust of Enceladus, “one of Saturn’s moons,” and the robot was specially developed for that task, as it can adapt to environmental changes in space.
The project is called EELS, which stands for Exobiology Scanner. It is an autonomous, snake-like robot made of multiple, identical segments containing mechanisms for operation and propulsion, as well as power electronics and communications to drive it.
The robot has rotating thrusters, the first of its kind, which enables it to dig and do many things that help it reach the source of the ocean under the ice crust.
