# SORA-Q

> model of Japanese lunar rover

**Wikidata**: [Q113840995](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q113840995)  
**Wikipedia**: [English](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sora-Q)  
**Source**: https://4ort.xyz/entity/sora-q

## Summary

SORA-Q is a thing that received the Good Design Award [1].

## Summary
SORA-Q is a tiny Japanese lunar rover — a 250-gram, 8-centimetre autonomous spacecraft model developed for operations on the Moon. Units of SORA-Q were included on commercial and national missions: one was carried on the Hakuto-R M1 mission (which suffered a landing failure) and a SORA-Q was also part of JAXA’s SLIM (Smart Lander for Investigating Moon) mission.

## Key Facts
- SORA-Q is a spacecraft model and subclass of lunar rover and autonomous robot, developed in Japan.  
- Mass: 250 grams.  
- Diameter: 8 centimetres.  
- Battery / service life (design life): about 2 hours.  
- Developers: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Tomy (Takara Tomy), Sony Group, and Doshisha University.  
- Part of/was carried on: Hakuto-R M1 (mission that experienced a landing failure) and Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM).  
- Official product page: https://www.takaratomy.co.jp/products/sora-q/ (Japanese).  
- Award: Good Design Award (Japan Institute of Design Promotion), 2022.  
- Social media: Twitter account @SORAQ_official (followers recorded as 15,466 as of 2023-04-25).

## FAQs
### Q: What is SORA-Q?
A: SORA-Q is a very small, 250-gram autonomous lunar rover model from Japan intended to operate on the Moon. It was developed through a collaboration that includes JAXA, Tomy, Sony, and Doshisha University.

### Q: How large is SORA-Q and how long can it operate?
A: SORA-Q measures about 8 centimetres in diameter and has a design battery life (service life) of approximately 2 hours.

### Q: Did SORA-Q fly on any lunar missions?
A: Yes. A SORA-Q was carried on the private Hakuto-R M1 mission, which suffered a landing failure, and a SORA-Q was also included on JAXA’s SLIM (Smart Lander for Investigating Moon) mission.

## Why It Matters
SORA-Q represents an extreme example of miniaturization in planetary robotics: a fully engineered lunar rover at a consumer-friendly scale. Its development brought together a national space agency (JAXA), commercial entertainment and electronics companies (Tomy and Sony), and academia (Doshisha University), illustrating cross-sector collaboration on space hardware. SORA-Q’s inclusion on both a private commercial mission (Hakuto-R M1) and a national precision-lander mission (SLIM) shows how very small rovers can be integrated into different mission architectures, from entrepreneurial lunar efforts to government scientific missions. The design also attracted mainstream recognition, receiving the Good Design Award in 2022, which highlights its engineering and industrial design qualities. As a compact autonomous rover, SORA-Q serves both as a technical demonstration of tiny mobile systems for extraterrestrial surfaces and as a public-facing symbol that can broaden interest in lunar exploration.

## Notable For
- Extremely small lunar rover: 250 g mass and 8 cm diameter distinguishing it from typical larger rovers.  
- Cross-sector development: created by JAXA with Tomy, Sony Group, and Doshisha University.  
- Dual mission presence: associated with the private Hakuto-R M1 mission (lost in a landing failure) and JAXA’s SLIM mission (landed as part of SLIM).  
- Design recognition: recipient of the 2022 Good Design Award.  
- Consumer-facing collaboration: product presence and official page hosted by Takara Tomy, and a derivative consumer item titled SORA-Q Flagship Model.

## Body

### Overview
- Name: SORA-Q (Japanese kana: ソラキュー).  
- Instance of: spacecraft model.  
- Subclass of: lunar rover; autonomous robot.  
- Country of origin: Japan.  
- Derivative work: SORA-Q Flagship Model.  
- Wikimedia Commons category: SORA-Q.  
- Wikipedia title: Sora-Q.

### Physical and performance specifications
- Mass: 250 grams.  
- Diameter: 8 centimetres.  
- Battery / service life: design life of approximately 2 hours (battery life).  
- Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/SORAQ-BackView.jpg.

### Development and partnerships
- Primary developer organizations: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA); commercial and academic partners include Tomy (Takara Tomy), Sony Group, and Doshisha University.  
- Official product/mission page hosted by Takara Tomy (Japanese): https://www.takaratomy.co.jp/products/sora-q/.

### Mission history
- Hakuto-R M1: SORA-Q was included on the Hakuto-R M1 mission; that spacecraft experienced a landing failure and the SORA-Q carried on it was lost.  
- SLIM (Smart Lander for Investigating Moon): a SORA-Q was also included as part of JAXA’s SLIM mission.

### Public presence and recognition
- Social media: Twitter account @SORAQ_official (account created/active from at least 2022-07-19). Recorded followers: 15,466 (point in time: 2023-04-25).  
- Award: Good Design Award (Japan Institute of Design Promotion), 2022.

### Catalog and registry data
- Google Knowledge Graph ID: /g/11qbf0dn0m.  
- Google News Topics ID: CAAqKAgKIiJDQkFTRXdvTkwyY3ZNVEZ4WW1Zd1pHNHdiUklDYW1Fb0FBUAE.  
- Sitelink count (internal registry): 4.

## Schema Markup
```json
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Thing",
  "name": "SORA-Q",
  "description": "SORA-Q is a tiny Japanese lunar rover model (250 g, 8 cm diameter) developed by JAXA with Tomy, Sony, and Doshisha University.",
  "url": "https://www.takaratomy.co.jp/products/sora-q/",
  "sameAs": [
    "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/SORAQ-BackView.jpg"
  ],
  "additionalType": "lunar rover"
}

## References

1. [Source](https://www.g-mark.org/gallery/winners/8312)
2. [Source](https://www.planetary.org/space-missions/slim-japans-precision-lunar-lander)
3. [Source](https://global.jaxa.jp/activity/pr/jaxas/no088/03.html)
4. [Source](https://www.newyorker.com/science/elements/a-mini-moon-rover-from-the-toy-company-that-created-transformers)
5. [Source](https://gizmodo.com/spacex-ispace-lunar-mission-hakuto-r-m1-1849884016)
6. [Source](https://sg.news.yahoo.com/japans-little-moon-toy-camera-065747821.html)
7. [Source](https://www.jaxa.jp/projects/files/youtube/sas/20220315_slim_lev_document03.pdf)