NASA has developed a snake-like robot called EELS (Exobiology Extant Life Surveyor) that is intended for future exploration of planets and moons. Now, EELS has been tested in different conditions. In the video below, you can check out some of the tests.
EELS is designed to be largely autonomous in its investigations and missions since there will be long response times if the robot, for example, is landed on Mars or any other distant celestial body. NASA writes:
Because of the communications lag time between Earth and deep space, EELS is designed to autonomously sense its environment, calculate risk, travel, and gather data with yet-to-be-determined science instruments. When something goes wrong, the goal is for the robot to recover on its own, without human assistance.
–jpl.nasa.gov
NASA has been developing EELS since 2019 and it is about 4 meters long and weighs 100 kg. Currently, the robot is not part of any of NASA’s missions, but that may change in the future if the robot is deemed capable of efficiently performing various missions.
