EXOBIOLOGY EXTANT LIFE SURVEYOR (EELS)

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Context

• NASA has developed a Snake-like Robot known as the Exobiology Extant Life Surveyor (EELS).

EELS

About

• NASA states that EELS is a "mobile instrument system" built to "explore internal terrain structures, assess habitability and ultimately search for evidence of life."

Architecture

• The EELS architecture is a snake-like, self-propelled robot and made of multiple, identical, segments containing both the actuation and propulsion mechanisms as well as the power and communication electronics to drive them."

Ability

• EELS can move through rough terrain to examine the planet's surface and determine whether life is present.
• EELS uses first-of-a-kind rotating propulsion units that act as tracks, gripping mechanisms and propeller units underwater, enabling the robot to access a plume vent exit and follow it to its ocean source.

Purpose

• The sixth-largest moon of Saturn, Enceladus, has been found to have liquid water and the chemical components necessary for organic molecules (carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, and sulphur).
• NASA intends to send the robot there.
• Its purpose is to examine the moon's surface and determine whether life is present.

https://www.republicworld.com/science/space/nasa-develops-snake-like-robot-eels-to-be-deployed-on-saturns-moon-in-search-of-life-articleshow.html