The robotic lander: Space history in the making

Sometime in the near future, NASA hopes to be ready with a fleet of robotic landers that - pardon the pun - can go where no man (or woman) - has ever gone before.

This second generation of small robotic landers will get sent to the moon as well as to asteroids. The job description may also include sending the landers to visit high-risk - and high-priority areas - in previously unexplored regions of space. Among other tasks, the landers will gather data and serve as possible precursors to later human robotic missions. In its most recent status report, NASA said that the project testing is going according to plan and hopes to begin flight testing later in the year, Here's a closer look at what the lander looks like.