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It is time to move over the traditional wheeled or legged robots. NASA has developed a robotic concept that sounds straight out of a science-fiction and has the potential to take space exploration to the next level. 

The US space agency has been working on sending a snake-like robot to explore and search for extraterrestrial life forms in the solar system. This robot is an exobiology extant life surveyor (EELS) developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. 

This robotic snake could penetrate through the holes, crevices, and cracks across celestial objects and planets in our solar system. Thereby exploring deep and difficult-to-reach places. 

The best part is that this self-propelled snake robot has been designed to easily traverse diverse terrains such as water, sand, rock, and ice. This ability stems from the snake robot’s ability to change and adapt shape in response to the landscape. It also has rotating screws to grip and wiggle through ice structures. “EELS uses first-of-a-kind rotating propulsion units that act as tracks, gripping mechanisms, and propeller units underwater, enabling the robot to access a plume vent exit and follow it to its ocean source,” according to NASA

According to a report, the team recently conducted Earth analog tests of the robot inside Canada’s Athabasca glacier and Mount Meager volcano. This was the first step in analyzing the robot’s resilience and navigation capabilities through rugged terrain and further refining the ultimate mission’s design. 

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