TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Japanese startup Dymon Co. said Saturday its ultra-compact, lightweight rover, which reached the Moon aboard a U.S. lander, will not proceed with its planned lunar exploration, bringing its mission to an end.

The Tokyo-based firm's 498-gram rover, Yaoki, measuring around 14 centimeters in length and width and 8 cm in height, remained mounted on U.S. company Intuitive Machines Inc.'s lander Athena, which was declared dead after landing on its side in the early hours of Friday, Japan time.

It landed some 250 meters away from the intended site of the lunar south pole, where it was unable to recharge with its solar panels oriented away from the sun.

Before ceasing its operation, Yaoki photographed a crater and a leg of the lander and transmitted the image as well as temperature data to Earth, Dymon said. The company confirmed that the rover's wheels were functional.

The initial plan after landing on the Moon was for Yaoki to wait around five days to acclimatize to the temperature before detaching from the lander. It then would have been remotely operated from Earth for several hours to capture and transmit images.

The lander was launched from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Feb. 26.

In February last year, Intuitive Machines became the first private firm to successfully send a spacecraft to the lunar surface.