A K-10 Red robot, a scout used to explore and map key places for astronauts to visit, is seen June 10, 2008, in Moses Lake, Wash. NASA scientists and contractors spent two weeks in Moses Lake field testing some of the vehicles and robots that will be used when humans return to the moon later this century.
Technician Kevin Groenman walks in a 300-pound space suit across the sand June 10, 2008, in Moses Lake, Wash. NASA has been tasked to return to the moon by 2020, and the tests in Moses Lake brought together numerous prototypes from laboratories nationwide to see how they worked in the field and how they worked together.
Technician Bill Welch, left, stands inside a 300-pound space suit as another technician talks with him June 10, 2008, in Moses Lake, Wash. Lunar tests started in late May in the Moses Lake Sand Dunes, a 3,000-acre off-road vehicle park with slopes, soft soils and wide open spaces similar to those found on the moon.
An ATHLETE -- All-Terrain Hex-Legged Extra Terrestrial Explorer -- vehicle stands on the sand, June 10, 2008, in Moses Lake, Wash. NASA says Moses Lake is a perfect testing ground because its soft, powdery soil that is mixed with volcanic ash is similar to lunar dust. The soil forms high, slippery dunes similar to the lunar hills the vehicles will have to climb.
A technician stands behind ATHLETE -- All-Terrain Hex-Legged Extra Terrestrial Explorer -- June 10, 2008, in Moses Lake, Wash. The crablike explorer can roll or walk across the ground carrying a cylindrical living pod for astronauts.
Two NASA astronauts in space suits drive their lunar truck near K-10 Red June 10, 2008, in Moses Lake, Wash. The 12-wheeled, gold-colored vehicle weighs 4,500 pounds and can carry four astronauts in spacesuits. With a top speed of 10 mph and the ability to attach various implements, it is designed to perform civil engineering on the moon.
Legendary NASA space suit engineer Joe Kosmo, right, talks with technician Kevin Groenman, in a 300-pound space suit, in Moses Lake, Wash. What makes the town located 170 miles east of Seattle along I-90 in the arid Columbia Basin so special? "Believe it or not, this place has a lot in common with the moon," Robert Ambrose, deputy division chief for NASA, said of the unusual sand dunes in central Washington.