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CASE 03 / Rescue & exploration

EELS: a snake robot for passages through ice

A segmented robot combines rotating screw propulsion with environmental mapping in ground tests on ice, snow, sand and glacier passages.

NASA JPL · EELS2024
EELS prototype during snow tests in Southern California, February 2023.
EELS prototype during snow tests in Southern California, February 2023.Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech · JPL Image Use Policy

Watch the video

Ground-prototype tests; planetary exploration is a mission concept. · NASA/JPL-Caltech · 1080p source video

Original video sourceOfficial YouTube version
01 / STUDY

Mechanism and experiments

Rotating screws along the EELS body provide propulsion and traction through contact with the surroundings. A sensor head combines lidar and stereo cameras for three-dimensional mapping. JPL has conducted ground tests in icy and granular environments and tested different sensor-head and robot versions at Canada’s Athabasca Glacier.

02 / CONTEXT

Test conditions and scope

The project remains in development. Glacier tests used a sensor head in 2022 and different prototypes in 2023, including version 1.5 for subsurface autonomy. Exploration beneath Enceladus is a mission concept.

03 / SOURCE

Papers and primary sources

EELS (Exobiology Extant Life Surveyor)
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
NASA/JPL · robotics project and field-test records

Further reading

EXPERIMENT / IMAGES

Experimental images

An early EELS prototype at the Pasadena ice rink, 2022.
An early EELS prototype at the Pasadena ice rink, 2022.Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech · JPL Image Use Policy
Official concept art for exploration through passages in ice.
Official concept art for exploration through passages in ice.Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech · JPL Image Use Policy
FROM THE JOURNAL

Related notes

The next move beneath the ice