SMRTR Science & EngineeringJun 10, 2026Live Science

This 'crawling' robot rolled around the moon and took a historic photo

SMRTR summary

When Japan's SLIM spacecraft crash-landed upside down on the moon in 2024, a small rolling robot saved the mission. The sphere-shaped rover, similar to Star Wars' BB-8, autonomously rolled across the lunar surface, photographed the overturned lander, and transmitted the images back to Earth — giving scientists crucial information about what went wrong before the lander eventually froze in the extreme lunar cold.

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