NASA's plans to explore the ice moons of the Solar System are getting more detail as the space agency is developing a robot that would use steam to power itself in deep space.

In a post to its website, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory notes researchers are developing a soccer-ball sized robot known as SPARROW (Steam Propelled Autonomous Retrieval Robot for Ocean Worlds) that "would use steam propulsion to hop across the sort of icy terrains found on Jupiter's moon Europa and Saturn's moon Enceladus.".

Moons In this artist's concept, a SPARROW robot uses steam propulsion to hop away from its lander home base to explore an icy moon's surface.

SATURN'S MYSTERIOUS MOON COULD SUPPORT ALIEN LIFE THANKS TO THIS NEW DISCOVERY.

By using steam to power the robot, SPARROW could thrive in the "low-gravity environment" on Enceladus and Europa, hopping "many miles over landscapes that other robots would have difficulty navigating," NASA added.

ALIEN LIFE ON SATURN'S MOON.

The lander would "mine ice and melt it" prior to putting it on SPARROW, which would later heat it and create the steam necessary to power itself.

Known as Dragonfly, the mission will explore Saturn's largest moon, Titan, which could potentially host extraterrestrial life

Two months later, NASA confirmed it would launch a mission to Europa, a trek that could answer whether the icy celestial body could be habitable for humans and support life