Out of this world! Toyota teams up with Japan’s space agency to develop a ‘Lunar Cruiser’ that will help people live on the surface of the MOON by 2040
- Toyota teams up with Japan’s space agency (JAXA) to develop a Lunar Cruiser
- The RV-like vehicle will launch to the moon in the late 2020s
- Toyota hopes the vehicle will allow people to live on the moon by 2040
It’s best known for its cars here on Earth, but Toyota is looking out of this world for its next vehicle – all the way to the moon.
Toyota is working with Japan’s space agency (JAXA) to produce a lunar exploration vehicle as part of its ambitions to help people live on the moon by 2040, and beyond that, Mars.
The vehicle being developed with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency is called the Lunar Cruiser, with the name paying homage to the Toyota Land Cruiser sport utility vehicle.
And it won’t be long before the Lunar Cruiser becomes a reality, with its launch set for the late 2020s.
The RV-like rover will hold two people up to 14 days, allowing them to live and work inside while traveling across the moon
Toyota is working with Japan’s space agency (JAXA) to produce a lunar exploration vehicle as part of its ambitions to help people live on the moon by 2040, and beyond that, Mars
Toyota’s Lunar Cruiser
Launch date: Late 2020s
Capacity: The RV-like rover will hold two people up to 14 days, allowing them to live and work inside while traveling across the moon
Cruising range: Even with the limited amount of energy that can be transported to the moon, Lunar Cruiser would have a total lunar surface cruising range of more than 10,000km (approximately 6,200 miles)
The vehicle is based on the idea that people eat, work, sleep and communicate with others safely in cars, and the same can be done in outer space, said Takao Sato, who heads the Lunar Cruiser project at Toyota.
He said: ‘We see space as an area for our once-in-a-century transformation.
‘By going to space, we may be able to develop telecommunications and other technology that will prove valuable to human life.’
Gitai Japan, a venture contracted with Toyota, has developed a robotic arm for the Lunar Cruiser, designed to perform tasks such as inspection and maintenance.
Its ‘grapple fixture’ allows the arm’s end to be changed so it can work like different tools, scooping, lifting and sweeping.
Gitai chief executive Sho Nakanose said he felt the challenge of blasting off into space has basically been met, but working in space entails big costs and hazards for astronauts.
That is where robots would come in handy, he said.
Since its founding in the 1930s, Toyota has fretted about losing a core business because of changing times.
It has ventured into housing, boats, jets and robots. Construction is set to start this year on its net-connected sustainable living quarters near Mount Fuji, called Woven City.
Japanese fascination with the moon has been growing.
A private Japanese venture called ispace is working on lunar rovers, landing and orbiting, and is scheduled for a moon landing later this year.
Gitai Japan, a venture contracted with Toyota, has developed a robotic arm for the Lunar Cruiser, designed to perform tasks such as inspection and maintenance. Its ‘grapple fixture’ allows the arm’s end to be changed so it can work like different tools, scooping, lifting and sweeping
Businessman Yusaku Maezawa, who recently took videos of himself floating around in the International Space Station, has booked an orbit around the moon aboard Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s Starship.
Toyota engineer Shinichiro Noda said he is excited about the lunar project, an extension of the car maker’s long-time mission to serve customers, and added that the moon may provide valuable resources for life on Earth.
‘Sending our cars to the moon is our mission,’ he said.
He added that Toyota has vehicles almost everywhere, ‘but this is about taking our cars to somewhere we have never been’.
ROCK DRUMMER TO BILLIONAIRE: WHO IS YUSAKU MAEZAWA?
Before he became a billionaire fashion entrepreneur, Yusaku Maezawa was an indie rock band member who decided to skip college ‘after seeing all the tired faces on my morning commutes’ in Japan.
Born in 1975 in Chiba prefecture in Japan, Maezawa graduated from the prestigious Waseda Jitugyo High School in 1991.
It was there that he started SWITCH STYLE, an indie rock band which eventually released an EP in 1995.
After graduating, he followed his then-girlfriend to the United States, where he collected CDs and records of musicians he loved.
In 1995, he returned to Japan and started an import CD and record mail-order business.
His business succeeded, and he began to branch out.
In 2000, he created an online retail business. That same year, his band signed with BMG Japan and debuted an album.
His company, Start Today Inc, also began to sell clothing.
In 2004, Start Today began Zozotown, the site made a killing selling clothes from shops such as Japanese boutique United Arrows and minimal French label A.P.C.
Zozotown’s success turned its founder, Maezawa, into one of Japan’s richest entrepreneurs, and its name adorns a baseball stadium.
The website set itself apart in its early days with a clean, uncluttered design and a slice of ‘Ura-Hara’ style – the modish fashion of the backstreets that line the trend-setting Harajuku district of Tokyo.
Business took off as fashion-conscious professionals in their late twenties and early thirties started using Zozotown to buy trendy but work-appropriate threads online from labels such as United Arrows and Nano Universe.
Its target is now broader, selling over 6,800 brands including clothes by Shimamura Co Ltd, one of Japan’s largest mass market chains. But industry executives say it still has an enviable cachet.
It continued to grow until 2007, when it went public and was listed in Tokyo Mothers Market.
In recent years, Maezawa has used his wealth to buy famous and pricey works of art.
In 2016, he spent $57.2million for a piece by Jean-Michel Basquiat.
A year later, he shelled out a whopping $110.5million at auction in Sotheby’s for another Basquiat piece – this one titled Untitled.
He’s also bought works by Christopher Wool, one of which he paid $13.9million, as well as Richard Prince.
In 2007, Maezawa spent $9.7million on Prince’s ‘Runaway Nurse’, which was a record.
He also paid $6.9million for ‘Lobster’, by Jeff Koons.
Maezawa’s dream is to buy up works of art and display them in his own private museum in his hometown of Chiba prefecture.
Sources: Reuters, The Daily Beast
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