A palm-sized, spherical rover named SORA-Q, about 3 inches in diameter, demonstrated autonomous navigation and wireless data relay on the Moon as part of the JAXA SLIM mission, including rolling, crawling, and morphing to survey terrain around the lander.

SORA-Q communicated for roughly 100 minutes—slightly shorter than planned—yet successfully proved autonomous mobility and exploration capabilities during the Moon test.

A full mission report detailing the SORA-Q experiment and its findings was published in Science Robotics.

Science Robotics also highlighted that miniature autonomous rovers like SORA-Q could influence future lunar and planetary exploration designs.

SORA-Q features a transformational design from a sphere to a wheeled, cylinder-like form with a deployable camera and stabilizer, drawing on toy-transformer concepts and enabling navigation on uneven lunar terrain.

The rover’s collaboration involved JAXA, Sony, Doshisha University, and Takara-TOMY to deliver a compact, autonomous explorer with hemispherical wheels for versatile mobility.

Its modular, morphable construction allows it to navigate rough and delicate surfaces without human control, signaling a shift toward versatile small-scale explorers.

A deployable camera and tail stabilizer aid SORA-Q’s navigation, helping it traverse challenging regions and capture imagery around the landing site.

SORA-Q worked in tandem with LEV-1 to access tight spaces and relay data back to Earth, showcasing a coordinated duo of autnomous micro-rovers.

The SLIM mission, including operations near Shioli Crater, demonstrates how small, versatile robots can operate under limited communication windows in harsh environments.

The findings point to a future paradigm where swarms of small, intelligent robots perform specialized tasks, offering more flexible, robust, and cost-effective exploration compared with reliance on a single large rover.

The results underscore the potential of palm-sized autonomous rovers to act as independent space explorers, extending reach beyond larger spacecraft and expanding data collection.