Japan’s ispace will fly a tiny European-built lunar rover to the moon this year (photo)

The Luxembourg-based subsidiary of Japanese space exploration firm ispace has finished building a micro lunar rover, which is now set to fly to the moon.

The newly assembled rover is soon set to be transported to Japan for integration into ispace’s HAKUTO-R lander. The lander-rover combo is set to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Florida’s Space Coast late this year.

The mission will be ispace’s second attempt to soft-land on the lunar surface. The first attempt, in April 2023, ended in failure.

The lunar micro rover, named “Tenacious,” will be lowered to the lunar surface from the lunar lander, named “Resilience.” The rover will conduct exploration using a forward-mounted HD camera designed to capture images on the lunar surface. Tenacious will communicate and receive commands from ground stations on Earth via the lander.

The vehicle is compact, measuring 10.24 inches (26 centimeters) tall, 12.40 inches (31.5 cm) wide and 21.26 inches (54 cm) long. The rover weighs about 11 pounds (5 kilograms), making it similar to the Chinese micro rover that tagged along on the recent Chang’e 6 lunar far side sample return effort and imaged the mission lander.

Related: Japan’s ispace shows off a tiny moon lander for its 2nd moon mission in 2024

Tenacious was developed by ispace-Europe in part with funding from the Luxembourg Space Agency through a European Space Agency (ESA) contract.

“I am delighted to witness the completion of the first European rover designed, manufactured and actually going to the moon, today in Luxembourg,” Tadahiro Matsubara, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan in Luxembourg, said in a statement.

“This is a significant step for the Luxembourg government that is actively promoting the industrialization of space resources,” Matsubara added. “We hope ispace’s continuous challenge will further deepen the goodwill between Japan and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.”

Resilience will also deliver commercial and scientific equipment to the lunar surface. The overall mission is expected to contribute to the NASA-led Artemis program, according to ispace.

“Tenacious perfectly captures the spirit of this small rover, poised to achieve groundbreaking milestones. It is the first lunar rover built in Europe and will be the first to transport European customers to the moon’s surface and collect space resources under Luxembourg’s 2017 Space Resources Law,” said Julien Lamamy, CEO of ispace-Europe.

The Japan-based company is also working on its third mission, which will use the in-development APEX 1.0 lunar lander for the first time. The mission is expected to launch in 2026.