It looks like a midget Indy race car, including the fancy racing stripes. But with a top speed of 2 inches per second -- or a mere 10 feet per minute -- this vehicle won't win any races.

But one of its descendants likely will do some important prospecting on the moon.

Carnegie Mellon University displayed its "Scarab" robot yesterday at the Lafarge quarry near West Mifflin.

In years to come, one of Scarab's descendants will prospect for water, ice and hydrogen on the moon's southern pole in hopes of finding resources that could provide a human lunar base with air, water and energy.

The 880-pound robot resembles a high-tech doughnut equipped with four wheels, each powered by its own motor. The robot features rocker-arm suspension that allows it to negotiate sandy slopes without tilting the robot body.

Packed with computer technology, the Scarab descendant will travel the lunar surface and take periodic meter-deep core samples that it will crush, heat and chemically analyze to determine its precise composition, with hopes that it will include ice or hydrogen.

Designed to scale steep inclines, cover sandy and rocky surfaces and withstand temperatures of -385 Fahrenheit, Scarab next will head to the rocky slopes of Mauna Kea, a dormant volcano in Hawaii's highest mountain, for rigorous testing.

Field testing from Nov. 1-13 will focus on the Canadian-built drill, around which the entire robot is constructed. Scarab can raise its body two feet high to scan the terrain or belly down to the ground so drilling can occur. It operates on just 100 watts of power produced by radio isotopes.

"We are five to 10 years away from a lunar mission," said David Wettergreen, associate research professor at CMU's Robotics Institute. "It will go on a six- to nine-month mission to characterize one crater" on the moon's south pole.

Under a $1 million research project, CMU and others designed and built Scarab for NASA's Human Robot Systems. The project is funded through NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston and is managed by NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland.