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Nasa team develops snake-shaped robot to explore the solar system

2023-05-16T05:18:28.102Z

Highlights: Researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) have developed a snake-shaped robot that acts and moves completely autonomously. EELS (Exobiology Extant Life Surveyor) is able to map, pass and explore places that were previously inaccessible to humans. The special thing about it is that it can cross different terrain, which is not always possible for NASA rovers such as Perseverance or Curiosity. It is conceivable that EELS could search for life in the ocean of Saturn's moon Enceladus, under a thick layer of ice.



Researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) have developed a snake-shaped robot that acts and moves completely autonomously. © Nasa/JPL

Rovers and probes are already capturing a large amount of data in space. A NASA robot in the shape of a snake is now set to revolutionize research.

Pasadena – In order to better understand and study the solar system, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is currently testing a versatile and flexible robot called EELS (Exobiology Extant Life Surveyor). It is able to map, pass and explore places that were previously inaccessible to humans. But how exactly does the robot work and what makes it so special?

Nasa team with breakthrough: snake robot acts completely independently

Visually, it is reminiscent of a huge snake – and the movements also resemble those of a reptile. In its current form, EELS weighs about 100 kilograms and is four meters long. It consists of ten segments that rotate and a screw thread for the drive. With a "perception head", consisting of radar and cameras, it perceives the environment.

The special thing about it is that it can cross different terrain, which is not always possible for NASA rovers such as Perseverance or Curiosity, for example. These include sand and ice, rock faces, craters, underground lava tubes and labyrinthine spaces in glaciers – and all this autonomously, without human help. "Imagine a car that drives autonomously, but there are no stop signs, no traffic lights, not even roads. The robot has to figure out what the road is and try to follow it," explains the head of the project, Rohan Thakker, according to an official statement from JPL.

Sand, snow, ice and lava: NASA robot EELS can traverse inaccessible places

The project team built the first prototype of EELS in 2019, and since then it has been continuously revised and improved. Regular field tests have been carried out since 2022. The robot was tested in sandy, snowy and icy environments. Hiro Ono, lead researcher at JPL, makes it clear what a major breakthrough in research EELS is: "There are dozens of textbooks on how to design a four-wheeled vehicle, but there is no textbook on how to design an autonomous snake robot that goes where no robot has gone before. We have to write our own book. And that's exactly what we're doing now."

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Currently, EELS is not involved in any NASA mission. However, it is conceivable that he could search for life in the ocean of Saturn's moon Enceladus, under a thick layer of ice, it is said. ESA's Juice spacecraft is currently on its way to Jupiter and its icy moons to explore the oceans beneath their ice sheets. The space probe "Voyager 2" has now revealed a secret about the moons of Uranus. (asc)

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2023-05-16

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