LEV-2 Autonomous Lunar Robot engineering model

This is an engineering model for the LEV-2 lunar rover which landed on the Moon as part of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA) SLIM (Smart Lander for Investigating the Moon) mission in January 2023. It was designed by Japanese toy company Takara Tomy and marks the first time ever there has been a collaboration between a toy company and a space agency for a mission. This engineering model was designed to test the rovers movement on the surface of Moon.

At 8cm diameter it is the smallest rover to ever operate on the Moon. It successfully deployed on the lunar surface in January 2023 and took images of the lander and landing site and autonomously chose which images to send back to the JAXA team. Takara Tomy - makers of Transformers - brought their expertise in small, robust children's toys to the JAXA mission, designing something that had as few parts as possible, was robust and small.