Toyota is Going To The Moon, Possibly.
Toyota is collaborating with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) on a planned mission to land an astronaut on the moon, with the auto giant expected to develop a lunar rover specifically for that purpose.
As a first step, JAXA and Toyota have reached agreement to further cooperate on and accelerate their ongoing joint study of a manned, pressurized rover that employs fuel cell electric vehicle technologies. The pressurized rover would have a total lunar-surface cruising range of more than 10,000 km before needing to recharge.
It will be Toyota’s first full-fledged entry into space exploration, after the carmaker co-developed a small robot that was sent to the International Space Station in 2013. That robot, Kirobo, became the first robot to speak in outer space.
Japan only recently announced their Lunar plans and although they lack the necessary technology and rockets to commit to a manned lunar mission, JAXA or Japanese Space Agency is already working on few ideas. One way of ensuring they meet manned lunar targets is perhaps hitching a ride with SpaceX or Blue Origin who are developing rockets capable of manned missions to the lunar surface.
JAXA has initiated Human Lunar Systems, conceptual system study on the future human lunar outpost but has not yet developed its own manned spacecraft and is not currently developing one officially.
Although theoretically JAXA could use H-IIB Expandable Launch System to deploy small to medium sized rovers and medium sized satellite in to GTO, the rocket sadly isn’t capable of large payload necessary for manned mission to the Lunar surface.
A cooperation with the ESA, NASA, SpaceX and BlueOrigin would seem to be the only way for Japan at this point to fulfil its lunar vision by 2029. This however, does not stop Japan from joining ESA’s moon village or utilize SpaceX to deploy all the necessary technology to develop Japanese base on the Moon.
However, going it alone in developing necessary tools seem to be counterproductive, considering the alternatives are somewhat cheaper and will soon become readily available. It would be smart for JAXA to consider alternatives before investing in to its own Lunar Delivery System, as working ESA, NASA and SpaceX could bare better results, and Toyota Lunar Rover could be JAXA’s contribution to the common endeavour.