Coming up in just a couple of weeks is NASA’s annual test, RATS (Research and Technology Studies). This will be held in the desert in Arizona and NASA will test out some of their new designs. On September 15 the media is invited to come and check out their innovations in action.

The tests are being held at the Black Point Lava Flow in Arizona because the terrain is similar enough to the Lunar surface that NASA can get a decent idea of how their equipment will operate. Of course, they can’t simulate the lesser gravity levels of the moon, but still, these tests at least give them an idea of how their robots and other new devices will operate.

Besides NASA there are also teams from other locations participating. The University of Colorado at Denver, Brown University, University of Texas at El Paso, US Geological Survey, The Smithsonian Institute, Arizona State University and the Mars Institute in Moffett Field, California.

You can check out video of last year’s RATS below.