Sora-Q is a miniature Lunar rover designed and made by Japanese space agency JAXA, toy manufacturer Tomy, Sony, and Doshisha University. [1]
It was launched to the Moon first on the failed Hakuto-R Mission 1 mission in 2022, [2] [3] and on 2023 Smart Lander for Investigating Moon mission, where it is also called Lunar Excursion Vehicle 2 (LEV-2). The rover was successfully deployed and operated after landing on January 19, 2024. [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]
The baseball-sized rover has a mass of 250 g and diameter of 8 cm and is equipped with two small cameras. LEV-2 extends its shape to crawl on the lunar surface using two wheels at its sides, a method of locomotion inspired by frogs and sea turtles; [9] it can "run" for approximately two hours. [10]