A month later, Toyota established a dedicated Lunar Exploration Mobility Works and planned to expand the department’s workforce to about 30 members by the end of last year. JAXA and Toyota signed a joint research agreement to work on a manned pressurized lunar rover last year in June 2019. The tentative plan aims to launch the lunar rover in 2029. The rover will be used for missions to explore the moon’s polar regions, with the aim both of investigating the possibility of using the moon’s resources―such as frozen water―and of acquiring technologies that enable exploration of the surfaces of massive heavenly bodies. A living space of about 13 m³ (460 ft³) is expected to be capable of accommodating two people (four people in an emergency). Specs for the original concept proposal for the pressurized rover include a 6.0-m (19.7-ft) length, 5.2-m (17.1-ft) width and a 3.8-m (12.5-ft) height-about the size of two microbuses. Even with the limited amount of energy that can be transported to the moon, the pressurized rover would have a total lunar-surface cruising range of more than 10,000 km (16,100 km). The partners say that such a form of mobility is deemed necessary for human exploration activities on the lunar surface.
The Lunar Cruiser name, which references the Toyota Land Cruiser SUV, will be used for the fuel-cell electric vehicle (FCEV). have named their joint manned pressurized rover.
JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and Toyota Motor Corp.
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