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CCSS: 6.RP.A.3.D
TEKS: 6.4H
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NASA’s New Space EEL
Engineers are building a slithering robot to search for alien life
NASA/JPL-Caltech (All Images)
The EELS robot was designed to maneuver on tough terrain like that on Saturn’s moon Enceladus.
Is there life in our solar system?
Engineers Peter Gavrilov and Phillipe Tosi test out EELS at an ice rink.
This robot designed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is called the Exobiology Extant Life Surveyor—EELS for short. It’s more than 14 feet long, weighs 220 pounds, and slithers just like a giant snake!
Engineers are testing the robot here on Earth. But they hope that EELS will be complete by 2024. Someday it could wriggle its way all over the surface of other places in the solar system.
One potential target is Enceladus, one of Saturn’s icy moons. Enceladus’s terrain can be tricky to navigate. EELS will have to traverse craters, cliffs, and underground tunnels, as well as squeeze down holes into glaciers.
“Though some robots are better at one type of terrain or other, the idea for EELS is the ability to do it all.” —Matthew Robinson, EELS project manager
EELS is 14.452 feet long. Its head and tail are connected by 10 body segments that are each 390 mm long. The tail is 155 mm long. How long is the head in millimeters, rounded to the nearest millimeter? (Hint: 1 foot = 304.8 mm). Record your work and answer on our Numbers in the News answer sheet.