NASA tests bot built to slither across, and beneath, alien worlds' ice
[PDF] operates on a tether for power and communications, the ultimate goal is for EELS to be self-sufficient. It's therefore been built with the ability to map its environment in 3D using a pair of stereo cameras and lidar. That data is fed to a navigation algorithm that chooses the safest path forward and the appropriate type of movement needed to traverse the terrain.
"Imagine a car driving autonomously, but there are no stop signs, no traffic signals, not even any roads. The robot has to figure out what the road is and try to follow it … Then it needs to go down a 100-foot drop and not fall," said Rohan Thakker, EELS's autonomy lead. There are no scientific instruments onboard EELS right now. The team is focusing on finalizing its movements and validating its sensors work.
EELS has already been tested underground. Future tests will see it visit the Athabasca Glacier in the Canadian Rockies, before more subsurface mobility trials in different environments.If and when it reaches mission readiness, JPL said that EELS could be used to explore glaciers on Earth, lava tubes on the Moon, or even the oceans and icy surface of Saturn's moon, Enceladus. But EELS is not attached to any mission as yet.
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