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EELS Exobiology Extant Life Surveyor For Enceladus

The EELS (Exobiology Extant Life Surveyor) robot is under development by NASA for a mission to Enceladus, a Saturnian moon.


(EELS Exobiology Extant Life Surveyor)

Right now, engineers are only in the prototype phase. But according to a recent NASA statement, EELS is eventually meant to “explore internal terrain structures, assess habitability and ultimately search for evidence of life. It is designed to be adaptable to traverse ocean-world-inspired terrain, fluidized media, enclosed labyrinthian environments and liquids.” It’s also designed to be self-propelled, so that snake-y body will be moving on its own accord.

(Via PopMech.)

Although you might think that robotic eels are as common as can be in science fiction, I actually can't think of any - except for the ones in Susan Beetlestone's 2012 novel Re:Set:

It was a small electronics lab, but I took no note of anything but the Eel. It was about five feet long, a silver flexiprene-covered body like a fat snake, a black bullet head and red camera eyes. I was puzzled that they had it tethered inside a wire cage... The Eel flexed its body, rattling the cage, and moved its head to look directly at me.
(Read more about robotic eels)

Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 5/17/2023)

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