Japan has the ambition of sending humans to the moon
and Toyota wants to help with that. The Japan Aerospace Exploration
Agency (JAXA) and Toyota Motor Corporation have announced an agreement “to
consider the possibility of collaborating on international space exploration.”
As a first step, JAXA and Toyota have agreed to cooperate on building a manned,
pressurized rover for lunar exploration that uses a fuel cell electric
powertrain.
Even with the limited amount of energy that can be
transported to the moon, the technology would give the rover a total
lunar-surface cruising range of more than 10,000 km. According to JAXA Vice President
Koichi Wakata, the agency plans to launch such a rover into space in 2029, with
lunar exploration missions expected to take place in the 2030s. “For
wide-ranging human exploration of the moon, a pressurized rover that can travel
more than 10,000 km in such environments is a necessity. Toyota’s ‘space
mobility’ concept meets such mission requirements,” Mr. Wakata said.
The pressurized lunar rover will have to deal with
extreme conditions on the moon, where gravity is one-sixth of that on Earth and
the terrain consists of craters, cliffs, and hills. Furthermore, it will have
to withstand radiation and temperature conditions that are much harsher than
those on Earth, as well as an ultra-high vacuum environment.
The only details released about the space mobility
concept regard its size. It’s 6 meters long and 3.8 meters high, offering a living space of 13 cubic meters. It’s designed to accommodate two people on a regular basis and four
people in emergency situations. We can also see that it has six wheels, all of
which are probably driven.
