LEV-1 transmits data acquired from the lunar surface! World-first accomplishments, such as successfully establishing direct communications with Earth from some 380,000 km away!
2024.1.25
JAXA has announced that LEV-1, which was developed by Moonshot Project Manager Yasuharu Kunii (Chuo University), Associate Professor Tetsuo Yoshimitsu and Assistant Professor Masatsugu Otsuki (JAXA Institute of Space and Astronautical Science) and Associate Professor Takao Maeda (Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology), has successfully transmitted data back to Earth! The transmission contained footage of SLIM after landing on the Moon (taken by LEV-2), and data from various sensors. In addition, LEV-1 was also confirmed to have successfully performed its “hopping”form of traversal over the Moon’s surface.
LEV-1 is an ultra-small rover weighing around 2 kg, and is now verified to be an observation vehicle that has successfully transmitted directly from the lunar surface! But there is even more good news! LEV-1 is able to traverse the lunar surface by “hopping,” and during this mission it was confirmed to have done so six times.
Hopping traversal over the lunar surface and communicating with LEV-2 through entirely autonomous functions are world-first achievements! We will build upon these achievements of LEV-1 for future lunar exploration as we continue to pursue research and development.
[A message from Project Manager Yasuharu Kunii]
Japan’s first lunar exploration rovers LEV-1 and LEV-2 have successfully achieved coordinated exploration as a parent-child pair of probes. The parent probe LEV-1 directly communicated with the earth while traversing the lunar surface by making six hops, and communicated with the child probe LEV-2 to receive the images LEV-2 had taken of the SLIM exploration vehicle after landing, and then transmit the images back to earth. I am truly delighted by what has been accomplished.
It has been more than two decades since we developed the concept of the small robot that would come to be called LEV-1 and began research and development into lunar exploration robot technologies, and finally this dream has been realized. I believe we have marked an important milestone in Japan’s robotic exploration of the Moon. I am full of gratitude to the fellow researchers who joined me on this journey without giving up, along with everyone who provided support and encouragement along the way.
The technological DNA of the LEV rover deployed this time will be carried forward to the realization of lunar exploration technologies based on multiple robot swarms, which are the aim of our R&D project under the Cabinet Office Moonshot R&D Program. I also believe the legacy of these achievements will be carried forward in many forms beyond the fields of lunar and planetary exploration. I look forward to the future achievements of LEV’s descendants and hope you will all watch over them. I also hope to one day have the chance to conduct research together with the young people who shared in this historic moment.
Yasuharu Kunii
#SLIM
#LEV1
#Small_Lunar_Lander_Demonstration_Vehicle
#JAXA
#Chuo University
