1. INTRODUCTION: The NASA ATHLETE (All-Terrain Hex-Limbed Extra-Terrestrial Explorer) is a vehicle developed by NASA Johnson Space Center, NASA Ames Research Center, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Boeing Company and Stanford University. It is part of the Lunar and Planetary Surface Operations element of NASA's Technology Maturity Program and constitutes the “effort for sustainable, cost-effective, and safe human lunar return” [1]. Two prototype “Software Development Model” vehicles of approximately half the scale were built (figure 1) and tested between 2005 and 2009. The mass of the vehicles is approximately 850 kg and their hexagonal frames are 2.75 m wide . The frame itself features 6 limbs with 6 degrees of freedom (DOF) that stand up to 2.08 m on the hip pitch axis. At the end of each branch there is a wheel with a diameter of 0.48 m equipped with an adapter to which various general purpose devices (drills, pliers, etc.) can be connected. Additionally, a pair of stereo cameras were attached to each side of the chassis and each wheel, allowing for a stereoscopic panoramic view of the vehicle's surroundings and also measurement of the exact position of the tool attached to the wheel. These allow the vehicle to move safely, autonomously or guided by an operator and also allow it to carry out tasks with great precision. 2. ROBOTS OVERVIEW: To ensure maximum safety, previous Moon missions landed robots on relatively flat spots [ 2] and limited their exploration area to nominally safe terrain. Furthermore, the use of separate landing and post-landing vehicles has led to the creation of duplicated subsystems such as primary structure, thermal control, wiring, power supply, image sensors [4], etc. All the above problems have been solved by the wheels... ... middle of the document ...... ieee.org, 4/3/2012).[7] Julie Townsend, Jeffrey Biesiadecki, Curtis Collins, “ATHLETE Mobility Performance with Active Terrain Compliance,” Aerospace Conference, 2010 IEEE, Page(s): 1 – 7 (http://ieeexplore.ieee.org, 4/3/2012) .[8] Wilcox, Brian H, "ATHLETE: A Cargo-Handling Vehicle for Solar System Exploration", Aerospace Conference, 2011 IEEE, pages: 1 - 8, http://ieeexplore.ieee.org, (4/3/ 2012).[9] http://www.theblaze.com/stories/see-nasas-two-ton-robot-that-can-leap-over-asteroids/ (4/3/2012).[10] Matt Heverly, Jaret Matthews, Matt Frost, Chris McQuin, “Development of the Tri-ATHLETE Lunar Vehicle Prototype,” Proceedings of the 40th Aerospace Mechanisms Symposium, NASA Kennedy Space Center, May 7-9, 2010 (http://www- robotics.jpl.nasa.gov 3/3/2012).[11] http://athlete.jpl.nasa.gov/ (4/3/2012).[12] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDvoe091tk4 (2/3/2012).