The UK is preparing to send its first rover to the moon, courtesy of the private company Spacebit.
The space exploration vehicle, which resembles a four-legged robot spider, will walk rather than roll across the lunar surface.
Its body is a cube just 10cm across and, with the legs attached, it weighs just 1.5kg.
The announcement was made at the New Scientist Live science festival in London this month. The rover will be transported to the moon by the Astrobotic Peregrine lander, which was awarded $79.5m (£62.3m) by Nasa in May as part of its commercial lunar payload services programme.
The lander, which is scheduled to touch down in July 2021, will be carrying up to 14 Nasa payloads and an equal number from private companies, including Spacebit, and other countries.
The rover will test the use of legs to scuttle across the moon’s uneven surface. The trial could lead to larger versions designed to crawl into hollow lava tubes, which will enable scientists to explore the lunar subsurface.
If successful the Spacebit rover will be the first payload from the UK to reach the surface of the moon.
