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by
Keith Cowing
“NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and Japan’s Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) Masahito Moriyama have signed an agreement to advance sustainable human exploration of the Moon. Japan will design, develop, and operate a pressurized rover for crewed and uncrewed exploration on the Moon. NASA will provide the launch and delivery of the rover to the Moon as well as two opportunities for Japanese astronauts to travel to the lunar surface.” More
Biologist, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Biologist and Payload integrator, Editor of NASAWatch.com and Astrobiology.com, Lapsed climber, Explorer, Synaesthete, Former Challenger Center board member 🖖🏻
More by Keith Cowing3 Comments
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This will be amazing not only for Japan to be the first nonUS astronaut to walk on the Moon (assuming China doesn’t beat Artemis) but also to allow the astronauts living in the Rover to go further away from the landing site
The illustration shows the Japanese do not know much about designing a pressurized rover. There has been a major campaign in Japan by Toyota and JAXA including die cast cars, etc., but the design is not going to be able to look like that.
Yes this render is older version before hatch was moved to the back.
The newer version shows the back porch which is where the EVA hatch is
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Toyota_JAXA_LUNA_CRUISER_Model_at_Japan_Mobility_Show_2023.jpg