rocket. The small, child - like robot is designed to provide companionship for human astronaut Koichi Wakata. Sputnik 1 was the first artificial Earth satellite. It orbited the Earth for three weeks before its batteries died and fell back into the atmosphere after two more months. ATHLETE (All - Terrain Hex - Limbed Extra - Terrestrial Explorer) is a six - legged robotic rover. It is designed, for maximum efficiency, to be able to both roll and walk over a wide range of terrains. RASSOR (Regolith Advanced Surface Systems Operations Robot) is a teleoperated mobile robotic platform with a unique space regolith excavation capability. It is also Low - gravity capable (for space mining). It is a Space Shuttle orbiter vehicle belonging to NASA. It embarked on its 33rd and final mission on July 8, 2011. Curiosity is a car - sized rover designed to explore the crater Gale on Mars as part of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission. It is an apelike NASA robot that can map its environment in 3D. Among its attributes is LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) device that lets RoboSimian sketch out its environment in three dimensions. RoboSimian SPUTNIK 1 KIROBO OPPORTUNITY CURIOSITY SPACE SHUTTLE HEDGEHOG ATLANTIS ATHLETE RASSOR BUMBLE