This lunar robot prototype looks like a centaur meant for the moon

A Japanese company has built a four-legged, rolling robot that looks vaguely like a centaur — boasting two arms with claw-like hands, an arachnid-esque abdomen and two bulging cameras for eyes — and is designed to transverse the surface of the moon.

The robot, called the R1, was designed and built by GITAI in partnership with the Japanese space agency, JAXA. A recent test run, carried out at a JAXA facility that mimics lunar dirt, shows the robot roving around the bumpy terrain on its four wheels, unpacking a series of parts using clamp-like hands and cinching together the base structure for a solar panel.

The R1 is one of several robots that GITAI has developed for various purposes. The company's goal is to take its tech to the actual lunar surface sometime in the mid-2020s, according to its website.