Japan’s iSpace will deliver a miniature 5-kg rover to the Moon this year

The Japanese company iSpace has completed the assembly of a miniature lunar rover, which will go to the Moon this year. The micro-rover, called Tenacious, was developed by iSpace’s European division in Luxembourg and will be sent to Japan for integration into the Resilience lander of iSpace’s second HAKUTO-R mission.

Image Source: Ispace

Tenacious is a compact device with a height of 26 cm, a width of 31.5 cm, and a length of 54 cm. The weight of the microrover is about 5 kg. It is equipped with an HD camera mounted at the front, which is designed to capture images of the lunar surface. The rover will be controlled and data received from it from ground stations on Earth through the landing module, according to the website Space.com

This is iSpace’s second attempt to make a soft landing on the Moon. The first, attempted in April 2023, ended in failure due to software problems. However, the company, driven by widespread interest in lunar space missions, and partly funded by the Luxembourg Space Agency under a contract with the European Space Agency (ESA), continued its efforts in this direction.

«I am pleased to witness the completion of the development, production and actual launch of the first European rover from Luxembourg to the Moon,” said Tadahiro Matsubara, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to Luxembourg, in a statement. “This is an important step for the Luxembourg government, which is actively promoting the industrialization of the space segment,” added Matsubara.

Tenacious will be carried to the Moon aboard the Resilience lander. The launch is scheduled for later this year from Cape Canaveral in Florida on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. In addition to Tenacious, the same lander will carry commercial and scientific equipment to the Moon, contributing to NASA’s Artemis program.

Note that iSpace is also working on its third mission, which will for the first time use the APEX 1.0 lunar module currently in development. This mission is expected to launch in 2026.