The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has plans to do something that no other space agency has pulled off until now. The space agency is planning to deploy a transformable baseball-sized robot on the lunar surface in 2022.
The main aim of the robot will be to collect data on the dust found on the Moon. The extracted data is said to come in handy to design the crewed pressurized rover. The robot will be a joint venture between JAXA, TOMY Company, Ltd. (Tomy Company), Sony Group Corporation (Sony), and Doshisha University.
Super compact and lightweight robot
The transformable robot will be sent to the Moon next year by the Japanese lunar exploration company ispace, aboard its commercial HAKUTO-R lander. The lunar robot will be ultra-compact and very lightweight that will be capable of surviving in harsh conditions.
It will measure a mere 80 mm (3 inches) in diameter and weigh only 250g. It will transform itself when required to drive and will be equipped with scientific equipment designed by big private companies. Sony is said to develop the imaging sensors, while Japanese toymaker Tomy will help make things compact to easily fit in the robot.
Important for future missions
As per JAXA, during the robot’s stay on the lunar surface, the images of the behavior of the regolith and the surface will be beamed to the mission control through the lunar lander. The robot will be in its ball form while being ferried to the Moon. It data will be used to evaluate the impact of the regolith on the driving performance of the crewed pressurized rover.
The robot is also believed to play a vital role in the upcoming lunar exploration missions. The Japanese space agency will continue to study further for space exploration by using lunar landing opportunities and technologies being developed by private firms.
Recently, Lockheed Martin and General Motors announced the development of a self-driven electric vehicle for astronauts on the Moon. It will allow them to travel across the lunar regions. Since it’s a self-driven vehicle, both companies envision a rover that can navigate to the landing site by itself and allow astronauts to climb aboard.
