
EELS (Exobiology Extant Life Surveyor)
A versatile, snake-like robot designed for exploration of previously inaccessible terrain
Robot Statistics
EELS 1.0 Mass
100000 Grams
EELS 1.0 Length
4.4 Meters
Status
In DevelopmentPotential Destinations
Moon, Earth, Icy Moons
Animal Analog: Snake
About EELS (Exobiology Extant Life Surveyor)
EELS is designed to go places no one has ever seen before, on its own, without real-time human input. The concept for this self-propelled, autonomous robot was inspired by the desire to descend the narrow, geyser-spewing vents in the icy crust of Saturn’s moon Enceladus in order to look for signs of life in the ocean below.
JPL’s EELS (Exobiology Extant Life Surveyor) was conceived of as an autonomous snake robot that would descend narrow vents in the icy crust of Saturn’s moon Enceladus to explore the ocean hidden below. But prototypes of have been put to the test to prepare the robot for a variety of environments.
This 2022 narrated animation shows the concept of operations for JPL’s EELS robot on Saturn’s moon Enceladus, which was the initial inspiration for the project.