NASA’s latest effort to search for signs of life in the universe could also be the plot of a blockbuster sci-fi thriller film.
The space agency shared its plans to look for life on Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus, through the use of a snake-like robot that it has recently begun testing, a statement shared.
Scientists and engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory have developed a 220-pound robot that’s 13 feet long and named EELS, or Exobiology Extant Life Surveyor.
Unlike the rovers sent to the moon or Mars, EELS is a “self-propelled” and “autonomous” machine that NASA hopes will be able to explore Enceladus without the need for human control.
Enceladus, which is one of Saturn’s 83 moons, has long left astronomers curious. While the surface is covered in frozen ice, underneath is a “global subsurface saltwater ocean.”
Now, the capabilities of the robot, which is still being tested, could allow it to reach places never before thought possible.
“It has the capability to go to locations where other robots can’t go. Though some robots are better at one particular type of terrain or other, the idea for EELS is the ability to do it all,” Matthew Robinson, EELS project manager, said in a statement. “When you’re going places where you don’t know what you’ll find, you want to send a versatile, risk-aware robot that’s prepared for uncertainty—and can make decisions on its own.”
Engineers shared that they hope it will soon independently slither through a variety of planetary and lunar terrains, including surfaces of sand and ice, cliffs, craters, and even lava tubes, on its own.
While developing the robot, NASA shared that they have tested it in landscapes similar to that of Mars as well as snow-covered mountains in Southern California.
Researchers are continuing to develop the robot, sharing that EELS will need to be able to calculate risk, move around, and collect data without direction from Earth due to the time it would take to send commands.
To help it do this, engineers have fitted it with stereo cameras and lidar, allowing it to create 3D maps of its surroundings to know how to navigate.
Those working on the project, like EELS principal investigator Hiro Ono, say they aren’t like a typical spacecraft development team.
Instead, Ono says they are like a start-up, working to “build quickly, test often, learn, adjust, repeat.”
“We have a different philosophy of robot development than traditional spacecraft, with many quick cycles of testing and correcting,” Ono said. “There are dozens of textbooks about how to design a four-wheel vehicle, but there is no textbook about how to design an autonomous snake robot to boldly go where no robot has gone before. We have to write our own.”
The current goal is for scientists to complete their work on EELs by the fall of 2024. However, after its completion, it will take close to 12 years for a spacecraft to deliver it to the remote icy moon.
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