Coming to the Moon in the 2030s: Japanese Astronauts and a “Toyota Lunar Cruiser”?

Above is a conceptual drawing of a manned pressurized lunar rover as imagined in 2019. Like the 2023 drawing featured in the banner photo, it is a six-wheel drive vehicle and features a pressurized cabin. The revised conceptual drawing, however, features a different arrangement of communication antennae, a LiDAR obstacle detection sensor, protective bumpers on all surfaces to protect the aircraft from micrometeorites, and changed window shapes. It also adds a gray painted heat exhaust radiator on the side. (Courtesy of JAXA/Toyota)

A crewed pressurized rover with solar panels deployed for energy generation. (Courtesy of JAXA/Toyota)

Tsutsui Fumiya, Director of JAXA’s Pressurized Rover Engineering Center. (© Akiyama Ayano)

Prototype of the driving system first built in 2022. (Courtesy of JAXA)

A prototype of “moon tires” developed by Bridgestone that do not get stuck in the fine, powdery regolith that blankets the moon’s surface. (© Akiyama Ayano)