Tokyo.— Toyota is working with Japan’s space agency on a vehicle to explore the lunar surface, with the ambition of helping people live on the moon by 2040 and then on Mars, company employees said Friday.
The vehicle developed together with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency is called the Lunar Cruiser, after Toyota’s Land Cruiser off-road pickup truck. Its launch is scheduled for the end of the 2020s.
The vehicle is based on the idea that people eat, work, sleep and communicate safely in their cars, and the same can be done in outer space, said Takao Sato, who leads the Lunar Cruiser project at Toyota Motor. Corp.
“We consider space as an area for a once-in-a-century transformation. By going into space, we could develop telecommunications and other technology that is valuable to human life,” Sato told The Associated Press.
Gitai Japan Inc., a company contracted by Toyota, has developed a robotic arm for the Lunar Cruiser to perform various tasks, such as inspection and maintenance. Its linkage structure allows the tip of the arm to be changed so it can work with different tools when shoveling, lifting and sweeping.
Gitai CEO Sho Nakanose said he believes the challenge of going to space has basically been met, but working in space carries high costs and risks for astronauts. That’s where the robots will come in handy, he said.
Since its founding in the 1930s, Toyota has worried about losing a core business due to changing times. It has ventured into the housing, boat, jet and robot sectors. Its sustainable grid-connected homes near Mount Fuji, called Woven City, will break ground this year.
The Japanese fascination with the Moon is growing.
A private Japanese company called ispace Inc. works on lunar rovers, moon landers and orbiters, and has a moon landing scheduled for this year. Entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa, who recently shot videos while floating on the International Space Station, has booked a trip around the Moon aboard Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s Starship.
Toyota engineer Shinichiro Noda expressed his enthusiasm for the lunar project, an extension of the automaker’s mission to serve customers, noting that the moon can offer valuable resources for life on Earth.
“Sending our cars to the moon is our mission,” he said. Toyota has vehicles almost everywhere. “But this is about to take our cars to a place we’ve never been.”
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