Conditions on the moon will be harsher, but prototype NASA automatic vehicles braved smooth storms and unprecedented temperature swings this month on sand dunes near Moses Lake, Wash. to arrange for impending astral expeditions. Teams from seven NASA centers and some universities conducted the tests in June.

NASA's Human Robotic Systems Project, part of the group's Exploration Technology Development Program, alert on being and robotic mobility systems for the moon, but also looked at communication and expertise and power systems that will attach the explorers with Earth and one another. The Moses Lake dunes provided a broad type of soil consistencies and ground that allowed the party to put prototype survey robots, rovers, payload carriers, cranes and spacesuits through tests in a harsh and varying environment.

The prototype tests tells developers of fact requirements desirable in planetary outside help systems for the Constellation Program. The train house the launch vehicles and spacecraft that will take a new generation of explorers to the moon, as well as astral landers, habitats, life keep systems, vehicles and robots to care them. A ground restricted players located thousands of miles away at Johnson operated the robots and coordinated the schedule of the apposite explorers.

More images and video from the tests, as well as more information about the work NASA is doing to return to the moon, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/exploration

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