A new robot, which is reportedly the size of a tennis ball, has been designed to explore the surface of the moon as part of Japan’s first soft lunar landing.

According to reports, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is conducting its Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) probe mission, which launched on September 6 along with the XRISM X-ray satellite payload.

Source: JAXASource: JAXA

The developers of the Lunar Excursion Vehicle 2 (LEV-2) expect that once it reaches roughly 6 ft above the moon’s surface, the tennis ball shaped probe’s casing will divide in half with a small camera system in both sides.

LEV-2 was developed in conjunction with researchers from Doshisha University and a team from the toy manufacturer TOMY.

“This robot was developed successfully within the limited size and mass using the downsizing and weight reduction technologies and the shape changing mechanism developed for toys by TOMY,” the researchers explained.

Eventually, JAXA engineers envision the soft lunar landing method will be adapted to larger craft in the future, including those helmed by human astronauts.

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