Toyota and Mitsubishi have announced that they will jointly develop lunar rovers with Japanese space agencies and will introduce fuel cell vehicle technology.

CTOnews.com, July 21 (Xinhua)-- Toyota Motor and Mitsubishi heavy Industries announced today that they are working with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to develop a lunar rover.

▲ Pexels the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is currently leading the Artemis lunar exploration program, which aims to achieve a manned lunar landing by 2025, followed by the establishment of a lunar base, in which Japan will participate.

The unmanned lunar rover currently being developed by Mitsubishi heavy Industries is for the LUPEX exploration project jointly promoted by JAXA and the Indian Space Research Organization, which aims to investigate the water content and water quality of the lunar south pole. JAXA plans to launch the rover after 2024.

On the other hand, in 2019, Toyota signed a cooperation agreement with JAXA to explore the possibility of cooperation in international space missions. As part of the deal, Toyota is developing a manned lunar rover Luna Cruiser that uses fuel cell vehicle (FCV) technology.

Toyota initially planned to use ordinary fuel cell technology, but is now considering equipping the lunar rover with renewable fuel cells (RFC) combined with water electrolysis, which, if possible, will make it possible to use electricity produced by solar cells during the day to generate hydrogen in a hydrolytic tank and run the fuel cell at night.

CTOnews.com previously reported that Toyota plans to sell 200000 hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicles by 2030.