NASA ATHLETE Rover 3D model

The All-Terrain Hex-Legged Extra-Terrestrial Explorer, or ATHLETE, was a lunar rover concept developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA's Constellation program. Unique among rover concepts, ATHLETE was capable of both walking and wheeled driving, with a set of six independent legs, each of which had a motorized wheel in place of a static foot. This would allow the rover to more easily navigate difficult terrain, while retaining the precision and comfort of a traditional wheeled rover. It would also simplify post-landing deployment, as ATHLETE could simply walk off the deck of a cargo lander, without the need for a ramp, crane, or other egress system.

ATHLETE was mainly intended to support delivery and transport of large cargo in support of crewed lunar missions, such as surface base modules. In this role, an ATHLETE would be pre-integrated with the habitat module prior to launch, and would then deliver it from the cargo lander to the base, including performing docking with existing base modules. Other applications included transporting crew across the lunar surface, and even integrating the rover directly into the structure of a lander

Technically, ATHLETE was a family of concepts, not a single vehicle. The version included in this file is a 6-meter class ATHLETE, carrying a representative habitat module

All materials, textures, and linked libraries are packed in the .blend file. Image textures have also been exported as a .zip file for use in other software. Unapplied modifiers and instancing have been used to reduce file size and enable easy editing