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LEAP: Legged Exploration Across the Plume

LEAP: Legged Exploration Across the Plume
LEAP: Legged Exploration Across the Plume This illustration depicts LEAP: Legged Exploration Across the Plume, a concept presented at the 2025 NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Symposium. The proposed legged robot would hop across the icy surface of Saturn’s moon Enceladus, leaping through its towering plume jets to collect samples of ocean material ejected from below. LEAP could help scientists search for signs of life and better understand the moon’s hidden subsurface ocean. NASA / Justin Yim