You’ve heard of “Snakes on a Plane”

Now it’s time for the highly-anticipated sequel: “Snakes on a Rocketship.” Yesterday, NASA unveiled a new 16-foot-long snake robot that the space agency is sending to one of Saturn’s 83 moons to search for extraterrestrial life.

The moon in question, Enceladus, is known for its icy surface, which is the most reflective in the Solar System. It also features an average temperature of minus 330°F.

🌕🌊 Behind the mission: NASA scientists believe there’s large amounts of liquid water on Enceladus, hidden beneath the ice, that may contain evidence of alien life – so they invented a snake-shaped robot that’s designed to slither its way into vents on Enceladus' surface, then enter the supposed ocean below.

• The self-propelled Exobiology Extant Life Surveyor (or EELS for short) is equipped with a wide array of sensors, allowing the robot to capture the world in 3D and send real-time video back to Earth.
• It’s also capable of deploying a payload of scientific instruments to measure the pressure, electrical conductivity, and temperature of the subsurface ocean.

But much like a white dress in Wednesday Addams' closet, EELS will have to wait for quite some time before it can be put to use. A launch date for NASA’s Enceladus exploratory mission has yet to be announced – and even after EELS blasts off into space, it’s expected to take another 12 years to reach Saturn’s orbit.

🪐👽 Zoom out: NASA isn’t the only space agency searching for signs of extraterrestrial life in our Solar System. Last month, the European Space Agency launched its $1.7 billion JUICE probe that’ll investigate three of Jupiter’s largest moons for evidence of alien life once it arrives there in 2031.