NASA’s Robotic Snake Prepares for Space Journey in Search for Alien Life; Alberta Glacier Used As Training Ground To Evaluate Its Mobility

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has introduced the Exobiology Extant Life Surveyor (EELS), a groundbreaking addition to the future of space exploration. But before the device was deployed, the team needed to test it somewhere closer to an extraterrestrial environment.

Snake-Like Versatile Robot

EELS is a snake-like, self-propelled robot with multiple segments containing both the actuation and propulsion mechanisms. It was meticulously designed to explore the challenging terrains of other planets and moons, to investigate the potential existence of alien life.

The robotic snake stands at 13 feet (4 meters) and weighs around 220 pounds (100 kilograms). It was intentionally designed to have an unusual body shape to aid in its exploration in varied terrains. The current prototype is composed of 10 identical actuator segments, which are linked together by screw thread, allowing it to move, rotate, and grab surfaces.

The EELS project envisions a future where the snake robot would collect scientific data from difficult and inaccessible regions of the Moon and Earth. Its unique prototype was developed in 2019 to be deployed on the surface of Saturn's moon Enceladus.

Data from the Cassini spacecraft has revealed that Enceladus has a liquid ocean under its icy crust. The plumes from its surface are channeled directly to liquid water, making this the easiest path to a habitable liquid ocean. Many proposed crevasse eruption models try to describe the hypothesized environmental conditions. The crevasse envelopes have driven EELS architecture to make it adaptable to the challenges of Enceladus environments and destinations such as Martian polar caps.

Exploring Extreme Terrains

Since the EELS prototype was developed, the JPL team has been actively training it to navigate extraterrestrial environments. The experts also refined the robot's design to prepare it for future space missions. Currently, there are no set plans for EELS, but NASA is preparing the technology to be ready when the right opportunity comes.

Last September, the snake robot was tested for the second time in the Athabasca Glacier in the Canadian Rockies, an analog location for simulating the alien habitats found on icy moons. It is also the most-visited glacier in North America, making it eminently accessible for easy transport of heavy and complicated pieces of robots and prototypes to the field site.

The Alberta glacier exhibits diverse environmental features, like crevasses and natural cracks, which serve as a testing ground in evaluating the mobility of EELS. In this round of testing, the experts focused on the robot's ability to navigate horizontally and vertically. They also assessed the payloads capable of mapping and detecting minerals in deeper surface locations.

EELS was trained to autonomously traverse terrains such as lava tubes, deep craters, cliff walls, sand, and ice without requiring real-time human input. These kinds of terrains are found on the Moon and other celestial bodies.

Aside from the Athabasca glacier, the Mount Meager volcano in Canada also served as a testing site for EELS. This expedition was made possible by the Trebek Initiative, a partnership between National Geographic and the Royal Canadian Geographical Society.