It was tiny, round, and built to flip itself open on the Moon.
SORA-Q arrived on the lunar surface on January 19, 2024, then unfurled into two halves to deploy wheels on each side. The miniature rover, small enough to fit in your palms, operated for nearly two hours, capturing images and sending data back to Earth.
A new study published Wednesday in Science Robotics details what happened during SORA-Q’s brief mission. It points to the problems the rover faced and the lessons researchers want to carry into future small space robots. The study suggests tiny rovers could support more flexible, robust and cost-effective missions to the Moon and other celestial bodies.
SORA-Q was created through a partnership between the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Doshisha University, Sony and TakaraTomy. The robot is officially known as Lunar Excursion Vehicle 2, or LEV-2, and was designed to transform on its own as it moved across uneven lunar terrain.
The rover reached the Moon aboard JAXA’s Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, or SLIM. But a thruster failure left SLIM lying face down on the lunar surface, cutting its mission short. SORA-Q photographed the lander with its solar arrays facing the wrong side, which helped JAXA assess SLIM’s condition.
SORA-Q operated on the surface for 100 minutes. During that time, it captured images of its condition after landing and of the surrounding environment, then sent the data back to Earth through its companion, Lunar Excursion Vehicle 1, or LEV-1.
The rover measured 80 millimetres across and weighed 250 grams. Its design drew on toy-making concepts, including transformation mechanisms and off-centre wheel rotations that let it switch between a robot and a car.
Researchers built SORA-Q for autonomous work on the Moon. It carried sensors and image-processing software to move through its surroundings, along with anomaly detection and autonomous recovery systems to identify faults.
Using onboard cameras, SORA-Q captured 12 high-resolution images from the lunar surface. The study says some data was lost during transmission to Earth. After moving around the SLIM lander, SORA-Q lost communication with LEV-1, most likely because its battery was running low.
The researchers say a single rover this small would have limits on the Moon or Mars because its size restricts the number of instruments and the computing power it can carry. Instead, they see ball-sized rovers working alongside larger machines, like NASA’s Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter on Mars. The smaller robots could reach cramped spaces such as small vents and craters that larger robots cannot access.
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