Robot could transport moon habitat.

New Scientist (4/4, Shiga) reported, "NASA engineers are testing out a giant, six-legged robot that could pick up and move a future Moon base thousands of kilometres across the lunar surface." The ATHLETE robot being designed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory "could act essentially like a turtle, carrying the astronauts' living quarters around on its back." Tests have shown the ATHLETE to handle slope of up to 35 degrees on its wheel tipped legs, which can be either driven like a rover or walked around difficult terrain. "NASA is taking the robot seriously. ATHLETE was discussed in the second and most recent round of planning for operations by the agency's Lunar Architecture Team, which was completed in 2007" and will being testing "in a desert location in the southwestern U.S. starting in late 2008." ANI (4/5) also covered the story.