Scouring one of Saturn's moons for extraterrestrials— sounds exciting, right? Turns out it's not that simple. In order to track down life on Enceladus, one of the ringed planet's 83 moons, you'll need to look underground, NASA scientists say. Making matters even more complicated is the fact that Enceladus' surface is frozen solid. So what kind of icebreaker is in order here?
Enter EELS, a 16-foot robot shaped like a giant snake for maximum boring and crawling power. The prototype for the Exobiology Extant Life Surveyor will soon be ready, and then it could be off to the outer reaches of Saturn in search of life. But that's no overnight journey: it's estimated that getting EELS to Enceladus could take about twelve years.