Version 1.0 of the EELS robot during field testing in Alberta, Canada, in September 2023. | Source: NASA/JPL-Caltech
No, that isn’t an AI image. They really have made a snake-like robot. And it is SUPER COOL!!! (and not just because it is made to explore icy planets)
Here is another picture just to prove this thing has been built and is presently in testing. See, real people (if you are willing to call scientists that) are standing around watching it. You may be asking WHY? Why are they creating the stuff of nightmares? Well, to make our space exploration dreams come true.
Not everything can be explored with rovers and flying drones. EELS offers a third option. The drill design allows the thirteen foot long robot to cross loose soil and even go into crevasses. Things the hard-working Mars and Moon rovers get bogged down in. With the AI-decision protocols (yes, this nightmare fueled design has state-of-the-art AI built in, and not just for making art on social media), the robot can figure out how to get from here-to-there using its corkscrew apparatus. The AI will allow the explorer to operate on Saturn’s moon Enceladus and other distant surfaces without constant checking back in with ground control. Mars is bad enough with distances between four and twenty light minutes in one direction; Saturn (and her moons) start at seventy-one minutes one direction and could be as much as eighty-eight minutes depending on the Earth-Saturn relative positions in orbit around Sol.
On Earth, EELS (Exobiology Extant Life Surveyor) is being tested on glaciers and may be used in the future for glacier mapping and rescue. The tether sends information back to the main platform rover, in this way EELS is like the flying drones – dependent on additional equipment. For search and rescue, the tether and AI mechanisms will allow quick deployment and transfer of information. Nothing is just for space.
While still a ways off for deployment, you can see it in action in the following YouTube video:
Bibliography
Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “Shape-Shifting Serpent of Space: NASA’s EELS Robot Revolutionizes Extraterrestrial Exploration.” SciTechDaily. 2023 May 9. https://scitechdaily.com/shape-shifting-serpent-of-space-nasas-eels-robot-revolutionizes-extraterrestrial-exploration/ – last viewed 4/26/25.
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “Testing Out JPL’s New Snake Robot.” YouTube. 2024. (See embedded video)
Vaquero, Daddi, Thakker, Patton, Jasour, etal. “EELS” Autonomous Snake-like robot with task and motion planning capabilities for ice world exploration.” ScienceRobotics. (Volume 9 Issue 88) 2024 March 13. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scirobotics.adh8332 – last viewed 4/26/25.
Wessling, Brianna. “CMU, NASA JPL collaborate to make EELS snake robot to explore distant oceans.” The RobotReport. 2024 April 13. https://www.therobotreport.com/cmu-nasa-jpl-collaborate-make-eels-snake-robot-explore-distant-oceans/ – last viewed 4/26/25.