If you were to imagine a hopping lunar penguin, it could possibly give you a fright or nightmares and is the stuff of fairy tales. But, a hopping lunar penguin is just what Raytheon developed and unveiled this week at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Space 2005 Conference. It's about 3 foot tall and weighs 230 pounds, sits squatty on four legs like the old lunar landers, has a few booster jump jets protruding out the bottom and looks nothing like a real penguin. The craft, with its jump jets, can make a jump on the moon of about six-tenths of a mile (1 kilometer) and then set down in a precise location. The intended purpose for the Lunar Penguin is to land on the south pole of the moon to search for ice. The Penguin was developed from military parts but it's good to see they were used for a peaceful purpose. Naturally with the name "Lunar Penguin", one wonders if it runs Linux?

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