A team of engineers shooting for the moon have put the finishing touches to a lunar rover prototype.

Japanese space race team Hakuto has completed its innovative model using solar panels, 3D printed wheels and the latest carbon fibre material which keeps the unit's weight down to just 4kg.

The lunar rover will be Hakuto's entry in next year's Lunar XPRIZE competition, a Google-backed scheme to encourage entrepreneurs to pioneer affordable access to the moon.

A $20m (£15.3m) prize is up for grabs for the first team to land a privately funded rover on the moon and have it travel 500 metres.

The unit must also transmit back high-definition video and images.


Japan Unveils Its Lunar Rover Competition Entry

To complete this feat Hakuto has fitted its rover with four cameras that will give a 360-degree view of the landscape, necessary for manoeuvring as well as capturing footage.

The unit's silvercoated Teflon cover will keep its temperatures stable, despite lunar temperatures varying between 100C and -150C.

The prototype will be tested next month at a desert in Tottori Prefecture, south Japan, where the ground closely resembles the lunar surface.

The Lunar XPRIZE has 16 entrants from across the globe.

Google says the competition's winner will prove that "cost-effective and reliable" access to the moon is possible and in the long term will "help to expand human civilisation into space".