---
title: "Moon Rover Signals Toyota’s Entrance To The Space Race"
description: "Toyota hopes to put a hydrogen-powered, pressurized rover capable of supporting two people on the moon by 2029."
date: "2019-03-12"
modified: "2019-03-12"
authors:
  - name: "Bertel Schmitt"
    link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/bertel-schmitt"
url: "https://www.thedrive.com/tech/26905/moon-rover-signals-toyotas-entrance-to-the-space-race"
categories:
  - "News"
  - "News by Brand"
  - "Toyota News"
tags:
  - "hydrogen"
  - "Mars"
  - "space"
  - "Toyota"
---

# Moon Rover Signals Toyota’s Entrance To The Space Race

![](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/images-by-url-td/content/2019/03/20190312_01_01_s.jpg>)
*\<em\>www.thedrive.com</em>*

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has high-flying plans to colonize Mars, while Toyota aims to drop something that looks like a futuristic RV onto the Moon.

Toyota announced its intentions to go into space at a joint session held today with JAXA, the Japanese equivalent of NASA. The meeting took place at Tokyo’s Toranomon Hills, and it was in a fight for attention with a big press conference at Nissan in nearby Yokohama, where less far-reaching matters were discussed, namely how the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance wants to spend its life after Carlos Ghosn. The umpteenth installment of the Ghosn soap attracted more media.

Together with JAXA, Toyota wants to heave a 20 by 17 ft six-wheeled vehicle onto the moon. The vehicle has living space for two in a sealed and pressurized cabin. In a pinch, four can cram into the vehicle. Being a Toyota, of course the moon-RV will be hydrogen-powered, offering an eye-watering range of 10,000 km (6,200 miles) on a single tank.

![message-editor%2F1552398220493-20190312\_01\_05\_s.jpg](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/content-b/message-editor/1552398220493-20190312_01_05_s.jpg>)
**Toyota**

According to JAXA VP Koichi Wakata, the first hydrogen-powered lunar rover is scheduled to be launched in 2029, and a fleet of them “will be an important element supporting human lunar exploration.”

In Tesla-time, Musk plans to send humans to Mars [anywhere between 2024 and 2032](<https://www.bloomberg.com/features/elon-musk-goals/>). It will be interesting to see who will conquer space first, a Tesla, or a Toyota.

![message-editor%2F1552398241627-20190312\_01\_06\_s.jpg](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/content-b/message-editor/1552398241627-20190312_01_06_s.jpg>)
**Toyota**

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