Scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory have revealed a next-generation snake-like robotic that would sooner or later crawl by way of the icy floor of Saturn’s moon Enceladus to look its subsurface ocean for indicators of extraterrestrial life.
Dubbed the Exobiology Extant Life Surveyor (EELS), the robotic is uniquely designed to enter by way of the thermal vents on the floor of Enceladus and crawl down into the ocean beneath within the seek for life past Earth.
Enceladus is a Tantalizing Target for Astrobiologists
Nearly twenty years in the past, NASA’s Cassini mission launched towards Saturn. During its decade-plus keep, the probe studied the large gasoline large and its moons earlier than ending its duties and smashing into the planet’s floor.
Among Cassini’s most tantalizing discoveries was the presence of giant plumes of water that the moon was ejecting into area. Researchers had beforehand steered that a large ocean of seawater existed beneath the icy moon’s floor, however these gigantic plumes appeared to lastly verify this.
Almost instantly, astronomers and fanatics alike started to bandy about idea missions that will return to Enceladus to see if this subsurface ocean was home to any extraterrestrial lifeforms. Among essentially the most promising includes flying a probe by way of the plumes and capturing samples of the ejecta to return to Earth for examine. Unfortunately, no mission of this sort is at present on NASA’s schedule.
Another promising idea concerned sending robotic probes to Enceladus to look the ocean straight. While more likely to garner dispositive outcomes than a flyby mission, quite a few challenges, together with drilling by way of the ice to get to the ocean, have made such a mission impractical, at the least in the meanwhile.
Now, a workforce from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has developed a novel snake-like robotic that’s technically possible and probably able to gathering a lot of the identical worthwhile information as these different proposed missions. They name it EELS.
Snake-Like EELS Robot Could Study Vents, Plumes, and Ocean for Signs of Life
In the journal Science Robotics, JPL scientists write that “an existing study shows that sending small robots into the vents and directly sampling the ocean water is likely possible.” This promising avenue of examine led JPL scientists to design and assemble a snake-like robotic that would enter and traverse these vents as a substitute of getting to drill by way of the ice.
“EELS leverages the existence of an open pathway to Enceladus’ subglacial ocean and sidesteps the problems of thermal ice drilling in cryogenic ice by using ice as terrain over which to move rather than a medium through which to move,” JPL scientist Tiago Vaquero and colleagues clarify.
The robotic itself is 4 meters lengthy and has what the workforce describes as a “perception head” crammed with cameras and sensors and a snake-like physique of ten individual segments. EELS can also be designed to function autonomously, eradicating considerations about communication with mission operators because it plunges deep into the moon’s icy floor.
Once the prototype was accomplished, the EELS workforce examined it out on the icy floor of Athabasca Glacier in Alberta, Canada, the place they are saying it moved “with dexterity.” The workforce additionally examined their snake-like robotic out on a sandy Mars-like setting, the place they are saying it carried out “similarly well.”
No Timeline for an EELS Life-Hunting Mission
There is at present no definitive timeline for a mission that will ship EELS to Enceladus. However, the workforce behind EELS believes they’ve constructed the precise sort of robotic such a mission would require. They additionally observe that scientists trying to find indicators of life are enthusiastic in regards to the potential of discovering life deep inside Saturn’s icy moon.
“Ice worlds are at the forefront of astrobiological interest because of the evidence of subsurface oceans,” the JPL scientists write. “EELS…can navigate Enceladus’ extreme surface and descend an erupting vent to capture unaltered liquid samples and potentially reach the ocean.”
Christopher Plain is a Science Fiction and Fantasy novelist and Head Science Writer at The Debrief. Follow and join with him on X, study his books at plainfiction.com, or electronic mail him straight at [email protected].
