How EELS will work
EELS is a snake-like, self-propelled robot made from a number of segments. It’s at the moment in improvement and several other prototype variations have been constructed, with some capabilities nonetheless present process testing.
Every phase of EELS has independently actuated counter-rotating screws that present propulsion, traction, and grip. Due to its segmented design, EELS can tackle numerous form configurations to extensively adapt its mode of propulsion to make use of no matter is greatest suited to the challenges of its terrain. EELS uses stereo cameras and lidar to create 3D maps of its environment, then makes use of synthetic intelligence to make autonomous choices about the place and the best way to transfer by its setting.
Due to all of this adaptability, EELS is capable of exploring extremely challenging terrain in unknown environments. Its use of AI to autonomously make choices additionally means it doesn’t should depend on controllers on Earth, that means the robotic explorer could make choices in real-time as an alternative of ready for instructions that take hours to achieve it.
As a result of EELS is designed to review its setting in addition to navigate by it, it has been modeled with a number of potential strategies of accumulating knowledge or retrieving samples. One mannequin includes a payload phase that may carry science devices and even deploy a Cryoegg, a spherical, wi-fi sensor package deal designed to drop into subglacial water and take measurements. EELS can also wind up being designed to gather samples beneath the ice, crawl again to the floor, and return these samples to a lander. Present EELS prototypes are nonetheless specializing in locomotion, with knowledge assortment capabilities deliberate for future iterations of the robotic.
Proving EELS as an Enceladus explorer
Whereas a robotic like EELS may very well be used to discover a wide range of worlds, its goal proper now could be Enceladus. The staff’s most important purpose is for the robotic to have the ability to discover the floor of Enceladus, discover the perfect place to get into the ice, descend down one in every of these cracks adapting its form and motion because it does so, after which attain the subsurface ocean and take a look at for indicators of life.
In September 2023, EELS proved its skill to deal with the sort of setting it would encounter on Enceladus. The mission staff performed field tests at Athabasca Glacier in Alberta, Canada, the place moulins (glacial crevasses) present a few of the greatest earthly analogs of Enceladus’ fissures.
