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Science / Fri, 19 Jun 2026 NPR

Why two transforming robots landed on the moon : Short Wave : NPR

Why scientists launched two little robots to the moontoggle caption JAXATwo tiny transforming robots landed on the moon! They accompanied Japan's first successful lunar lander called SLIM - Smart Lander for Investigating Moon and are the size of a baseball. The halves act as spinning wheels and help them waddle, bounce and roll over hard terrain. These little rovers are autonomous and designed to scout out the terrain ahead of larger rovers or go places they can't. It includes perks like bonus episodes, early access, archive access, curated playlists and sponsor-free listening.

Why scientists launched two little robots to the moon

toggle caption JAXA

Two tiny transforming robots landed on the moon! They accompanied Japan's first successful lunar lander called SLIM - Smart Lander for Investigating Moon and are the size of a baseball. They rolled out of SLIM as balls and transformed into a rover by cracking down the middle, each half of the sphere moving outward revealing a little camera in the center. The halves act as spinning wheels and help them waddle, bounce and roll over hard terrain. These little rovers are autonomous and designed to scout out the terrain ahead of larger rovers or go places they can't.

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This episode was produced by Berly McCoy. It was edited by Rebecca Ramirez. Tyler Jones checked the facts. The audio engineers were Robert Rodriguez, Ted Mebane and Hannah Gluvna.

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