Japan plans to send a very small modular rover to the Moon in 2022. The size of a baseball, this rover will aim to take photos of the surface and collect data on moon dust. .
The Japanese company ispace is preparing a lunar rover unlike any other. It actually has the particularity of being very small, baseball size exactly and it weighs only 250 grams. It works somewhat similar to the prototype NASA is working on which is modular in order to split into two parts and abseil down into the craters of Mars. Ispace’s modular little rover is able to take many forms depending on what it has to do: move around, take a photo, collect data, etc.
The modular rover is developed for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). This plan to land it on the moon in 2022 thanks to the HAKUTO-R lander built by the same company. Moreover, JAXA’s small lunar rover will not be the only one from ispace to go to the Moon. Indeed, the Japanese company has already signed a contract with the United Arab Emirates for a rover nicknamed Rashid.
Japanese modular rover will take photos and analyze moon dust
If the 2022 mission is successful, Japan and the United Arab Emirates will join other countries that have already gently landed a spacecraft on the surface of the Moon, namely the former USSR, the United States and the United Arab Emirates. China. Once landed on our natural satellite, the Japanese modular rover will have the mission of take pictures of the moon and collect data on moon dust. Much like solar storms that could endanger astronauts, moon dust is toxic to both humans and devices.
L’japanese space agency explained that: ” The modular lunar robot will be an ultra-compact and ultralight robot capable of traversing the harsh lunar environment using miniaturization technologies from TOMY Company and Doshisha University, control technologies from Sony and development technologies to manage the space environment of JAXA “. Indeed, the lunar rover is a compendium of technologies from Sony and the toy maker TOMY.
For its part, NASA recently announced that its new VIPER rover will take off in 2023 towards the Moon with the aim of fetching water. For the moment, the Japanese modular rover is still in development at ispace. If all goes according to plan, it will take off next year.
Source : Space.com
