A Japanese-built spherical transforming rover, just 3 inches (8 centimeters) in size, successfully took a sojourn on the moon — and, in doing so, it demonstrated autonomous navigation and wireless communication with another lander that then relayed data back to Earth. The robotic rover, named SORA-Q after the Japanese words for "space" and "sphere,", aims to pave the way for more miniature autonomous lunar robots.
SORA-Q flew to the moon in December 2023 on the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA's) Smart Lander for Investigating moon (SLIM) mission. After a few weeks in orbit, SLIM landed on the lunar surface on January 19, 2024. Quickly, it deployed the tennis ball-sized SORA-Q rover along with another robot — a small hopping machine known as Lunar Excursion Vehicle-1 (LEV-1). (SORA-Q was designated LEV-2.) SLIM was the first Japanese mission to soft-land on the moon.
