NASA’s return to the moon has been plagued by delays and spiraling costs, which means it could now fall to privateer firms like SpaceX to take us back to the surface of the moon. If the Elon Musk-backed company is given NASA’s contract to fly to the moon, it could end up carrying a new electric vehicle into orbit, and it won’t be one assembled by Tesla.
The American space agency’s return to the moon is under threat after it was revealed that delays to the Space Launch System are putting the Artemis program behind schedule and over budget. This means that NASA could instead turn to privateer companies like SpaceX or Blue Origin to return astronauts to the surface of the moon.
SpaceX and Blue Origin have been tasked with developing lunar landers that can deliver huge loads onto the surface of the moon, with Fast Company reporting that Musk’s space firm is targeting 2029 for the day it can land cargo onto the surface of Earth’s natural satellite.
That cargo could include infrastructure to build a new moon base or a neat little buggy for astronauts in orbit to get around on. This particular cargo could play into the hands of SpaceX, which has close ties to EV maker Tesla and has even already flown a car into space.
NASA isn’t tapping Tesla to develop a new moon buggy for the Artemis program, however, so SpaceX may be tasked with flying a vehicle from another automaker into orbit, namely: Toyota. As AutoEvolution reports:
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.
Of course, Toyota isn’t the only company working on a new lunar rover for astronauts to joyride in one day. In fact, SpaceX is working on a lunar terrain vehicle of its own, which it (obviously) called Eagle.
Given company boss Musk’s track record with delivering new cars on time, it’s probably safe to assume that the Toyota Lunar Cruiser will be a reality long before SpaceX’s best effort.
When the Cruiser does burst onto the moon’s surface for the first time, it’ll be about 19 feet long and 16 feet wide, making it roughly the same size as two minibuses side by side. Inside, it’ll have a pressurized volume of 459 cubic feet, meaning room for two astronauts with all their space exploration gear.
To power it, the Lunar Cruiser will run on a hydrogen powertrain that’s derived from the Toyota Mirai that you can almost exclusively buy in California. Here’s hoping there are more hydrogen filing stations on the moon than there are in the U.S. by the time this thing’s ready to run.
