That Sora-Q rover is some cool tech. I remember watching a demo of it on a TV show. It was co-developed by JAXA (the Japanese space agency) and TOMY (yes, the toy company), and it’s a little transformer bot.
My Japanese is a little rusty, but in the interview, the inventors talk about how they wanted a tiny rover the size of a baseball that could navigate the lunar surface. After numerous abortive attempts at making something that small that could still propel itself over lunar sand, one of the team had a dream about sea turtles that inspired the final design. They claim it can handle grades of up to 30° which is better than a lot of larger rovers.
And yes, TOMY is making a consumer version of it with a working camera you can operate using a phone app. Their rep said they wanted to inspire a new generation to tinker and develop interest in space exploration and sciences in general.
That Sora-Q rover is some cool tech. I remember watching a demo of it on a TV show. It was co-developed by JAXA (the Japanese space agency) and TOMY (yes, the toy company), and it’s a little transformer bot.
My Japanese is a little rusty, but in the interview, the inventors talk about how they wanted a tiny rover the size of a baseball that could navigate the lunar surface. After numerous abortive attempts at making something that small that could still propel itself over lunar sand, one of the team had a dream about sea turtles that inspired the final design. They claim it can handle grades of up to 30° which is better than a lot of larger rovers.
And yes, TOMY is making a consumer version of it with a working camera you can operate using a phone app. Their rep said they wanted to inspire a new generation to tinker and develop interest in space exploration and sciences in general.
This is so cute and so cool. Thanks for sharing!
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a demo
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I’d pay good money to have a drone on the moon I could play with.