Japan’s Upside-Down Moon Lander Image Is Totally Bonkers As Probe Goes Back Online

The incredible journey of Japan’s first-ever moon landing continues, as its LEV-2 (Lunar Excursion Vehicle) captured an amazing image of its SLIM (Smart Lander for Investigating Moon) spacecraft. LEV-2 successfully deployed onto the lunar surface on January 20, 2024, just before SLIM and LEV-1 landed.

In what the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) referred to as “20 minutes of terror,” its SLIM spacecraft helped Japan become the fifth country to successfully land a spacecraft on the lunar surface. Less than a week later, JAXA also confirmed that its LEV-1, a small robot deployed from SLIM after landing, successfully conducted activities on the lunar surface. LEV-1 then made direct communication with ground stations, as well as an inter-robot test radio wave data transmission from the Transformable Lunar Robot, also known as LEV-2 and nicknamed “SORA-Q”. LEV-2 later captured the awe-inspiring image of SLIM upside down on the rocky lunar surface.


JAXA shared the image via its X/Twitter account, touting that “LEV-2 is the world’s first robot to conduct fully autonomous exploration on the lunar surface.” The Japanese space agency added in a press release that LEV-2 “is considered as the world’s smallest and lightest case of direct data transmission from approximately 380,000 kilometers away.”

Mikitaro Toyama, Chairman of Takara Tomy Co., remarked about LEV-2, “I am very pleased that the LEV-2 ‘SORA-Q’ made a great contribution to the pinpoint landing mission of the small lunar landing demonstration aircraft SLIM. This made SORA-Q the first robot in Japan to land on the moon and shoot [an image].”

The shared image was transferred to Earth via LEV-1, and confirmed that the communication between LEV-1 and LEV-2 was operating properly. It also confirmed that LEV-2 successfully deployed from SLIM, landed on the lunar surface, and then was able to drive autonomously on the moon. LEV-2 weighs only about 250g, with a deployed width of about 123mm, proving that big things can come in small packages.

JAXA considers the success of SLIM, LEV-1 and LEV-2 “groundbreaking achievements” that will provide critical data for future lunar explorations. It is extremely hard to argue otherwise.