It’s time to switch to traditional robots with wheels or legs. NASA has developed a robot concept that looks like science fiction and has the potential to take space exploration to the next level. The US space agency is working to send a snake-like robot to explore and search for extraterrestrial life forms in the solar system. This robot is an Extant Life Surveyor (EELS) exobiologist developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The possibilities of a snake-like robot

This robotic snake can pass through holes, cracks and rifts in celestial bodies and planets in our solar system. Thus, it explores deep and hard-to-reach places.

The best part is that this self-propelled robot snake is designed to easily traverse a variety of terrains including water, sand, rocks and ice. This ability comes from the snake robot’s ability to change and adapt its shape to suit the landscape. It also has spinning propellers to grab and shake ice structures. “EELS uses first-of-its-kind rotating propulsion units that act as fins, grippers, and propeller units underwater, allowing the probe to access and follow an ocean source into a vent,” NASA said.

According to the report, the team recently conducted analog ground tests of the robot on Canada’s Athabasca Glacier and Mount Meagher volcano. This was the first step towards analyzing the robot’s stability and ability to navigate rough terrain and further refine the final mission design.

May one day reach Saturn’s moon Enceladus

The EELS initiative follows discoveries made by the Cassini probe, which has been investigating Saturn, its rings and moons for nearly 13 years. The iconic mission ended in September 2017, when the spacecraft crashed into Saturn’s atmosphere. The remarkable discovery of water vapor clouds launched into space by Saturn’s small icy moon Enceladus accelerated the development of this robotic snake EELS. This raised the possibility of a habitable liquid ocean beneath the Moon’s frozen crust and sparked the space community’s interest in exploring the Moon.

Scientists and engineers hope to study ventilation systems by sending this robot into a thick crack in the Moon.

“These cracked crusts drive all aspects of the EELS architecture to make it adaptable to the challenges it may face during its journey from the surface to the ocean. The system’s adaptability also opens up other targets, such as the Martian polar caps and descending cracks in the Earth’s ice sheets,” NASA explained.

Additionally, it could help future astronauts set up an Artemis base camp during future missions. It can easily penetrate lunar lava tubes or craters and determine where and how much water is trapped on the lunar surface. These remote locations are difficult to reach, but this robot snake can operate efficiently and send large amounts of data back to Earth.

The NASA team is currently working on the finalization of the EELS robot. If all goes according to plan, we have a chance to see a snake gliding across the icy surface of Saturn’s moon. With all that said, there are still a few unknowns that need to be resolved before this sci-fi concept becomes reality.