NASA is making SpaceX fly a Toyota to the moon
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When Elon Musk’s SpaceX helps NASA bring a vehicle to the Moon, it most likely won’t be a Tesla (TSLA-1.78%).
NASA recently awarded Space X and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Original contracts for its Human Landing Systems, tasking them with figuring out how to transport roving vehicles to the moon by 2032 as part of its Artemis program.
But, as Auto Evolution reports, SpaceX and Tesla weren’t given contracts to design and build the rover.
That work is already being done by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, which has been developing a rover with Toyota (TM+0.97%) since 2019 called the Lunar Cruiser.
The unpressurized rover is supposed to be able to carry two suited-up astronauts and more than 1,000 pounds of cargo to help astronauts explore the moon’s surface and conduct experiments.
“Based on current design and development progress for both crew and cargo landers and the Artemis mission schedules for the crew lander versions, NASA assigned a pressurized rover mission for SpaceX and a lunar habitat delivery for Blue Origin,” Human Landing System program manager Lisa Watson-Morgan said in the statement, according to Space.com.
If the mission succeeds, it will be the first time astronauts have walked on the moon since the 1970s. The goal of the mission is to establish a permanent residence on the moon near its lunar South Pole.
