NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is within the midst of testing a recent robot that it hopes to deploy into outer space to assist answer the age-old query of whether life exists away from Earth.
The Exobiology Extant Life Surveyor (EELS) system is a snake-like robot designed to maneuver through solid and liquid formations while collecting samples.
One in every of the space agency’s listed objectives is to succeed in the surface of Enceladus, one in every of Saturn’s 83 moons, and examine its icy features.
Because of a voyager spacecraft flyby within the Nineteen Eighties, it’s believed the icy surface of Enceladus is comparatively smooth, and temperatures are greater than 300 degrees Fahrenheit below zero.
In 2005, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft discovered that icy particles flowed from the surface of the moon into space, creating its own ring while orbiting Saturn.
These eruptions from the moon’s surface gave credence that an unlimited liquid ocean may lie beneath the surface.
The hostile conditions are one in every of many challenges the EELS team has taken into consideration while designing a craft that may survive in the intense environment.
A posh propulsion system will allow for surveying of solid or liquid landscapes, and members have been busy testing the surveyor in hostile regions on Earth.
The 16-foot-long robot has been used to look at glaciers and volcanoes to place its capabilities to the test.
NASA has not set a launch date for the EELS project, meaning any mission is probably going years away.
If the search is successful, the space agency said it may lead to deeper exploration of celestial bodies that were once considered unattainable.