Japan plans to deploy a baseball-sized rover to explore the moon’s surface in 2022.
The Japanese company ispace will deliver the small rover to the moon for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) using the commercial HAKUTO-R lander. JAXA will use the rover to snap pictures of the moon and collect data on lunar dust a corrosive substance known to be tough on people and machines, the space agency said.
The 8.8oz bot will arrive in a compact ball that will help the private robotics company Ispace carry the machine aboard its lunar lander. Once on the surface, it’ll pop open into a “full” configuration that captures images of the Moon’s surface. This will also make the robot useful for future missions, JAXA said.
The contributions aren’t completely surprising. Sony provided the control technology for the robot, while Tomy and Doshisha helped miniaturize the design. Work on the robot started with a study in 2016, but the effort mainly solidified with Sony’s entrance in 2019 and Doshisha’s in 2021.
Ispace will launch its lander and the transfomer robot in 2022. We wouldn’t count on seeing many space exploration robots like this, but this project hints at a future where shapeshifting designs let landers either carry previously impractical robots or reduce the size of the host vehicle itself.
