Official website of SORA-Q, an ultra-compact, transformable lunar robot jointly
developed by JAXA, TOMY Company, and partners
About the SORA-Q
Challenge
We are overjoyed that LEV-2 (SORA-Q) was able to make a significant contribution to the mission of realizing a pinpoint moon landing by Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM).
SORA-Q has now become the first Japanese robot to land on and photograph
the Moon.
This success belongs to everyone involved and all who supported us in pursuing this dream together.
We thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
It is our hope that the SORA-Q project's success will encourage children around the world to take an interest in the natural sciences, and that it will help them to appreciate the importance of taking on new and difficult challenges and inspire hopes and dreams and a belief in their ability to create their own future.
Toys are our calling, and we are proud that, in this auspicious year marking the 100th anniversary of our founding, our toy technology has played a part in this astonishing achievement, and we will continue to take on new challenges inspired by play.
January 25, 2024Kantaro Tomiyama, Representative Director
and Chairman, TOMY Company, Ltd.
Photo of the Smart Lander for
Investigating Moon (SLIM)
taken by SORA-Q
(Taken January 20, 2024)
SORA-Q is an ultra-compact, transformable lunar robot jointly developed by JAXA, TOMY Company, Sony Group Corporation, and Doshisha University.
We used technology cultivated through the development of toys to give SORA-Q a transformation mechanism and an ultra-compact, ultra-lightweight design.
SORA-Q is released from the lander as a sphere, and once on the lunar surface, it begins to transform into a lunar robot capable of travelling across the Moon’s surface.
SORA-Q will travel across the lunar surface and take pictures of the lander and its surroundings with its onboard camera. When its mission is over, it will stop moving and remain on the Moon.
JAXA and TOMY Company commenced joint research on the robot in 2016 under the JAXA Space Exploration Innovation Hub Center's Request for Proposal scheme. This joint research initiative was later joined by Sony Group Corporation in 2019 and Doshisha University in 2021.
Doshisha University
