After Sending a Tesla to Space, SpaceX Could Soon Send a Toyota to the Moon

The gargantuan size of the task at hand means that NASA enlisted the help of many private space companies, as it would have been impossible for it to do this alone. And it was a bit in luck, too, as it had where to choose from.

The most prominent partners NASA has for Artemis are SpaceX and Blue Origin. Among other things, the two are tasked with developing the lunar landers that will take astronauts down to the surface of the Moon from either the Orion spaceship or the Gateway lunar station.

None of the two landers are ready for duty yet (SpaceX's Starship Human Landing System, or HLS, is considered one of the reasons for the delay of the Artemis II and III missions), but the American space agency seems confident everything will work out as planned. That's probably why it announced last week it plans an extension of the contracts it has with the two companies.

The revised deal calls on both Elon Musk's and Jeff Bezos' companies to build derivatives of their landers that can deliver to the surface of the Moon large pieces of equipment and infrastructure. In essence, the building blocks that will make the place an outpost for our species.

The first couple of crewed missions to the Moon will focus pretty much on testing the hardware and performing a limited amount of science, but starting with Artemis V, things will become a bit more complicated, and they'll require the deployment of additional hardware. Including, of course a new Moon rover. Or, to be fair, a number of them, produced in various parts of the world.

As per NASA, the task of transporting one of these future rovers to the Moon will fall on SpaceX, which will handle the delivery of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA) pressurized vehicle, but no sooner that 2032.

JAXA is working on a pressurized rover together with Japanese carmaker Toyota. Announced since all the way back in 2019, the project morphed over the years into something that became known as the Lunar Cruiser, taking after the carmaker’s hit Earth-roaming vehicle.

It’s unclear if the Land Cruiser is the rover NASA is referring to, but as far as we know of no other Japanese company is working on a pressurized transporter for the Moon. So there's a good chance that after sending a Tesla into space just to show off, SpaceX might also soon deliver a Toyota to the Moon.

The details we have about the Lunar Cruiser paint a pretty compelling picture. The thing is about the size of two minibuses placed side by side, and offers two astronauts (or up to four for short periods of time) a pressurized volume of just 459 cubic feet (13 cubic meters).

To travel around the surface the rover will use a hydrogen powertrain derived from the one deployed on the Toyota Mirai, and that should give it a range of up to 6,200 miles (10,000 km). Both NASA and JAXA astronauts will be able to use the rover.

So, that's SpaceX’s task. Blue Origin, on the other hand, will have to land on the Moon an unspecified surface habitat, which by all accounts will form the basis on the first human colony on another world. The launch is scheduled to happen after 2033.