Japan will send a transformation robot ball to the moon

Japan prepares unusual robots to explore the month – and it is clearly influenced by the country’s technology industry. Bytes reported that the Aerospace Japan (JAXA) exploration agency had cooperated with Sony, Doshisha University and Tomy toy maker on the ball transformation robot to study the land of the moon ahead of the rover crewed in 2029.

The 8.8oz bot will arrive at a compact ball that will help personal robotics companies carrying machines on top of the Land. Once on the surface, it will open into a “full” configuration that captures the surface of the moon. It will also make robots useful for future missions, said Jaxa.

The contribution is not completely surprising. Sony (who knows something about rolling robots) provides control technology for robots, while Tomy and Doshisha helps miniaturizing the design. Working on robots began with a study in 2016, but the effort was mainly compacted by the entrance of Sony in 2019 and Doshisha in 2021.

Ispace will launch landers and transfomer robots in 2022. We will not rely on seeing a lot of space exploration robots like this, but this project signaled in the future where the shapeshifting design allows landers carrying a robot that was previously impractical or reducing the size of the previous host was not practical or reduce the size of the host. the vehicle itself.