UK firm to send crawling spider-like rover to the moon

From the 2016 Rosetta comet landing, to the development of the Mars rover for ESA’s forthcoming mission to the red planet, British space scientists and engineers are at the heart of some of the world’s most ambitious and challenging space-exploration efforts. Which makes it all the more surprising that our nearest cosmic neighbour - the moon - has never been visited by a UK developed probe or robot. Until now that is.

Because in the summer of 2021 - if all goes according to plan - this notable gap in the sector’s CV looks set to be plugged when a small rover developed by UK startup Spacebit becomes the first British built craft to reach the lunar surface.

Perhaps even more intriguingly , this diminutive robot (which weighs around 1.3kg and is built on a 10x10cm cube sat frame) will break the mould for planetary rovers, which typically move about on tracks, and instead scuttle across the moon’s surface on four spider-like legs. According to Spacebit CEO Pavlo Tanasyuk, the autonomous battery-powered rover - known as “Asagumo” - will be the first legged robot to explore anywhere other than Earth.