Moon shot: Toyota, Japan space agency plan lunar mission

The Japan-Toyota link up for a planned mission to the moon is part of renewed global interest in the 'eighth continent'
The Japan-Toyota link up for a planned mission to the moon is part of renewed global interest in the 'eighth continent'

Toyota is teaming up with Japan's space agency on a planned mission to the Moon, with the Japanese auto giant expected to develop a lunar rover, officials and local media said Wednesday.

It will be the 's first full-fledged entry into , after the company jointly developed a small robot sent to the International Space Station.

"We are planning to cooperate with Toyota in an exploration mission to the Moon," said a spokesman with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

Details will be announced by JAXA and Toyota Tuesday next week when the hosts a symposium in Tokyo, the spokesman told AFP.

Toyota also confirmed plans to announce a joint project with JAXA "on mobility and a space probe" but declined to comment further.

Jiji Press news agency said the car giant is expected to jointly develop a "mobility method" to be used on the lunar surface for the mission.

The mission is part of renewed global interest in the Moon, sometimes called the "eighth continent" of the Earth, and comes 50 years after American astronauts first walked on the lunar surface.

Before humans set foot on the again, NASA aims to land an unmanned vehicle on the Moon by 2024.

So far, only Russia, the United States and China have made the 384,000-kilometre (239,000-mile) journey and landed spacecraft on the Moon.

Last month, Israel launched a spacecraft that aims to join them.

In 2017, Japan revealed plans to put an astronaut on the Moon around 2030.

© 2019 AFP

Citation: Moon shot: Toyota, Japan space agency plan lunar mission (2019, March 6) retrieved 28 March 2024 from https://phys.org/news/2019-03-moon-shot-toyota-japan-space.html
This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.

Explore further

Canada 'going to the Moon': Trudeau

171 shares

Feedback to editors