Unoccupied AxEMU lunar EVA suit underwater at NASA’s Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory in Houston, Texas. Date unknown. Photo: Axiom Space on X.com
One of the critical tasks for the upcoming Artemis missions is completing new spacesuits for astronauts to wear while on the lunar surface. The suits are critical, as they must protect astronauts from severe temperatures, the moon’s lack of a meaningful atmosphere, and sharp, jagged lunar regolith.
In September 2022, NASA awarded Axiom Space a $228.5 million contract to develop the next-generation spacesuit for the Artemis III mission to the moon. The suits, called Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit (AxEMU), are still being developed. Today, Axiom Space announced that they have moved into a new testing phase: they are testing the AxEMU suits underwater in NASA’s Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory in Houston, a critical step to ensure suit performance and to inform the company of areas where improvements are needed.
The company shared two photographs of the ongoing tests at the NBL this morning on X.com, saying “The AxEMU entered the water for the first time this week at NASA’s Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL). Testing was conducted with an unoccupied spacesuit, adding weights to accurately simulate the lunar environment, where gravitational forces are 1/6th of Earth’s.”
Unoccupied AxEMU suite undergoing testing at NASA’s Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory in Houston, Texas. Date unknown. Photo: Axiom Space on X.com
According to NASA, ” These tests are integral to ensuring the spacesuit is effective and complies with NASA’s safety and performance requirements.” Currently, the Artemis III mission will be the first that the AxEMU suits will be required, with the current estimated date for the mission launch no earlier than September of 2026. Critical items like the SpaceX Human Landing System and the suit must be perfected and crew-rated before the launch. SpaceX suggests that the fourth launch test of their new Starship rocket will occur sometime in May.
Axiom Space added in a subsequent X.com post that “With the successful conclusion of this trial run, the next NBL suit run will have our very own astronaut inside.” They did not specify a date or who will be inside the lunar suit.
The prime and backup crews for the upcoming Boeing Starliner Crewed Flight Test arrived at Kennedy Space Center this afternoon. They landed on the storied Launch and Landing Facility (LLF) formerly known as the ShuttleLanding Facility (SLF) — the same runway that Space Shuttle orbiters returned to at the completion of their missions.
Starliner OFT-2 lifts off in 2022. Photo: Charles Boyer, ToT
NASA’s Commercial Crew directorate has announced the results of the Readiness Review for the planned launch of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner flight test: they are “go” for launch at 10:34 PM EDT on May 6.
Jim Free’s Comments
Jim Free, NASA Associate Administrator, began the press conference by saying, “The first crewed flight of a new spacecraft is a absolutely critical milestone. The lives of our crew members Sunny Williams and Butch Wilmore are at stake. We don’t take that lightly at all. The most important thing we can do is protect those two people as well as our crew currently on board the space station. It’s our collective job to ensure we can fly this Mission successfully and to do that it must be safe.”
NASA Associate Administrator Jim Free Photo: X.com
Free continued, saying that he was satisfied that the Readiness Review was thorough and that Starliner, Atlas V and ISS were prepared properly for the test flight. “Safety has always been our primary core value at NASA,” he said, “And it’s our primary focus during this Readiness Review, all the reviews that have led up to it and the entire development process I can say with confidence that the teams have absolutely done their due diligence.”
Free concluded by summarizing the Review results. “There’s still a little bit of close out work to do, but we are on track for a launch at 10:34 Eastern Daylight time on Monday May 6th.”
Free On Starliner and Orion Shared Technology
Free made an interesting statement about the importance of the Starliner flight: some of the technology used in the Boeing capsule is also used in Orion, which is, of course, used in the Artemis program. “There are many elements of this Mission which have similarity to hardware that will fly on Orion. Parachutes, as an example, so this [the Starliner Crewed Flight Test is] important across our entire agency.”
Ken Bowersox Comments
“May 6th is not a magical date. We’ll launch when we’re ready and we’re looking forward to to when that occurs.”
Ken Bowersox
Ken Bowersox, an Associate Administrator for NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate made some comments later in the press conference intended to remind everyone that the planned May 6 launch date is a target date, and not one set in stone. Bowersox is a veteran of five spaceflights, and joined the agency in 1987.
Ken Bowersox pictured during STS-73, prior to re-entry. Photo: NASA
“Butch reminded us how important it is to keep working thoroughly at a job all the way till you’re finished,” Bowersox said, “And Suni reminded us that launch dates aren’t magical dates. The important thing is to launch when we’re ready.”
“I can tell you at this review the team worked thoroughly through every bit of data that we had to look at as a management team, and I know that the teams that reviewed that data before it was brought to us looked at it even more closely, so when we polled today the team decided that we are ready to move forward to the Crew Flight Test.”
“Again, May 6th is not a magical date. We’ll launch when we’re ready and we’re looking forward to to when that occurs.”
The prime and backup crews for the upcoming Boeing Starliner Crewed Flight Test arrived at Kennedy Space Center this afternoon. They landed on the storied Launch and Landing Facility (LLF) formerly known as the ShuttleLanding Facility (SLF) — the same runway that Space Shuttle orbiters returned to at the completion of their missions.
After offering some remarks and answering questions from the press, the crew departed to begin final preparations for their upcoming launch, planned for May 6, 2024, at 10:34 PM EDT. After a successful liftoff and some time in orbit to catch up with the International Space Station, the pair will dock at the orbiting laboratory and stay for about a week.
Wilmore began his remarks by saying, “Suni and I were talking. We love Florida! We love Kennedy Space Center because this is where you launch humans into space.” True, and Wilmore thanked everyone working on the upcoming Starliner launch. “You just want to mention everybody’s name,” he said. Wilmore then pointed out the NASA, Boeing and United Launch Alliance managers present at the arrival and thanked them and the backup crew members and other astronauts working this launch alongside the prime crew.
Flying In: Astronauts and backup crew arrive at Kennedy Space Center’s Launch and Landing Facility (LLF) on April 25, 2024. Photo: Ed Cordero, Florida Media NowArriving in style: Boeing Starliner CFT astronauts flew to Kennedy Space Center using T-38 trainer aircraft. Photo: Charles Boyer / ToTButch Willmore and Suni Williams pulling up to the tarmac today at the Launch and Landing Facility (LLF) at Kennedy Space Center Photo: Charles Boyer / ToTA confident Butch Wilmore greets the crowd awaiting him at KSC today Photo: Charles Boyer / ToT
Starliner lifts off on top of an Atlas V as it begins its Orbital Flight Test 2. Photo: Charles Boyer / ToT
According to NASA, Flight Readiness Reviews are starting today for the upcoming Boeing Crewed Flight Test of the Starliner Capsule “Calypso.” It is slated to launch with Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams aboard no earlier than May 6, 2024, at 10:34 PM EDT.
In those meetings, reviews of the preparations and technical states of the Atlas V rocket that will carry the capsule, Starliner and NASA will be examined and a determination made afterwards as to mission readiness.
Wilmore and Williams will quarantine at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston before traveling to the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida no earlier than Thursday, April 25, where they’ll remain in quarantine until launch.
Meanwhile, teams also are preparing for the Flight Test Readiness Review, which will take place over the course of two days – Wednesday, April 24, and April 25. That review brings together teams from NASA, Boeing, ULA, and its international partners to verify mission readiness including all systems, facilities, and teams that will support the end-to-end test of the Starliner.
Following a successful flight test, NASA will begin certifying the Starliner system for regular crew rotation missions to space station for the agency.
Launch is scheduled no earlier than 10:34 p.m. EDT May 6.
Starliner is already mounted atop Atlas V, and both the launch vehicle and capsule continue to undergo preparations for the launch. As with all launches, there is a lengthy to-do list, and part of the Launch Readiness Review will be to examine where all parties are in the process that leads up to liftoff.
Starliner leaves the Boeing preparation facility at Kennedy Space Center on its way to SLC-41. Photo: Charles Boyer / ToT
Astronauts In Quarantine
Wilmore and Williams have entered quarantine, a normal step before a crewed launch: NASA and its ISS international partners want to ensure that new astronauts arriving at the ISS do not bring any communicable illnesses—even a common cold—to the crew already aboard the orbiting outpost.
NASA and Boeing also want to ensure that the crew is fit and ready for launch and orbital activities, which culminate in Starliner docking at the ISS a few days after launch from here on the Space Coast.
This has been done for decades and is part of the regimen of a launch campaign.
NASA does not provide coverage of these internal meetings but will instead announce the findings Thursday at 6 PM EDT when they hold a press conference. Stay tuned.
You can learn more about NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test by following the mission blog, the commercial crew blog, @commercial_crew on X, and commercial crew on Facebook. Talk of Titusville will also offer full coverage of events leading up to the launch and the launch itself.
Voyager 1 undergoing testing before launch at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., on April 27, 1977. Photo: NASA / JPL
According to NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Voyager 1, one of humanity’s two probes in interstellar space, has resumed sending engineering data back to Earth.
Last November, Voyager 1 stopped sending readable science and engineering data back to Earth, halting ongoing measurements and investigations. Mission controllers could tell the spacecraft was still receiving their commands and otherwise operating normally but could not do much else, leaving mission managers and engineers scrambling to assemble a team to fix the aging spacecraft.
According to a press release from JPL and NASA, “In March, the Voyager engineering team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California confirmed that the issue was tied to one of the spacecraft’s three onboard computers, called the flight data subsystem (FDS). The FDS is responsible for packaging the science and engineering data before it’s sent to Earth.”
“The team discovered that a single chip responsible for storing a portion of the FDS memory — including some of the FDS computer’s software code — isn’t working. The loss of that code rendered the science and engineering data unusable. Unable to repair the chip, the team decided to place the affected code elsewhere in the FDS memory. But no single location is large enough to hold the section of code in its entirety.”
In this illustration oriented along the ecliptic plane, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope looks along the paths of NASA’s Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft as they journey through the solar system and into interstellar space. Hubble is gazing at two sight lines (the twin cone-shaped features) along each spacecraft’s path. The telescope’s goal is to help astronomers map interstellar structure along each spacecraft’s star-bound route. Each sight line stretches several light-years to nearby stars. NASA, ESA, and Z. Levay (STScI)
They continued by saying, “[T]hey devised a plan to divide affected the code into sections and store those sections in different places in the FDS. To make this plan work, they also needed to adjust those code sections to ensure, for example, that they all still function as a whole. Any references to the location of that code in other parts of the FDS memory needed to be updated as well.”
Brilliant computer science work that was, especially for a vehicle about 15.12 billion miles from Earth, traveling at 38,026 miles per hour. Currently, it takes roughly 22.5 hours for a signal to travel from Voyager 1 to Earth (and vice versa), creating a major challenge in communications.
Voyager 1 Launch on September 5, 1977
The narrow bandwidth further complicates those communications: about 40 bits per second for engineering data, or roughly five alphanumeric characters each second. By comparison, the median Internet speed in the US is 242.38Megabits per second, or 30.2 million characters.
In the next few weeks, the Voyager 1 team plans to relocate and adjust the affected portions of the FDS software including portions that will start returning science data. Meanwhile, Voyager 1 will continue to travel away from the Earth.
Starliner outside of Boeing’s Starliner facility at Kennedy Space Center on April 16, 2024 Photo: Charles Boyer / ToT
United Launch Alliance and Boeing transported the CST-100 Starliner capsule from Boeing’s preparation facility aside the VAB early this morning and transported it to SLC-41 for mating to its booster, an Atlas V N22. Launch of the Crewed Flight Test is scheduled for NET May 6, 2024, with an eight day mission planned for crew and spacecraft.
On hand to greet Boeing employees and members of the press were CFT Pilot Sunita “Suni” Williams and CFT Commander Barry “Butch” Wilmore. The two thanked everyone for coming out to greet them early in the morning, and they expressed their confidence in a great mission to come. “We’re super proud of this team,” Williams said. “They made it happen, and it’s time to turn [Starliner] over from production to operations.” With that, the pair expressed their readiness to go fly aboard Starliner.
Flight Objectives
Butch Wilmore gives a thumbs-up to onlookers on April 16, 2024. Photo: Ed Cordero / Florida Media Now
First, and foremost, Boeing and NASA mission managers would like to see a relatively event-free maiden crewed flight of Starliner, with no unexpected major incidents. Boeing’s Starliner has flown twice, once in 2019 and once in 2022, and neither time with crew aboard.
The first flight, Orbital Flight Test 1 (OFT-1), in 2019, failed to reach the International Space Station (ISS) after the on-board clock malfunctioned. The second flight, Orbital Flight Test 2 (OFT-2), in 2022 met all of its major objectives and docked with the ISS, where it remained for four days before returning to Earth.
Since the second flight, other problems, including a potentially flammable tape used to wrap the wiring harnesses of Starliner were replaced, issues with parachute lines and its harness were improved and tested, and software improvements were made. Those remediations held up this Crewed Flight Test until earlier this year, and after that, scheduling issues on the International Space Station ports has kept Starliner on the ground.
Now that the ISS docking ports are clear and technical issues have been resolved, Boeing, United Launch Alliance and NASA have begun their launch campaign, which begins in earnest with a planned liftoff no earlier than May 6th.
Starliner wiating transportation outside Boeing’s facility at Kennedy Space Center on April 16, 2024 Photo: Charles Boyer / ToT
Crewed Flight Test Objectives
Last month, Mark Nappi, Boeing’s Vice President and Program Manager of the Starliner Program outlined what promises to be a busy schedule for Williams and Willmore during the flight. “The CFT flight is really the introduction of crew into our vehicle system. So a lot of our flight test objectives are about how that interface is going to work.”
Nappi said regarding flight test objectives, “We’ve got just under 90 of them. And it’s all, does the vehicle perform with the human in the loop, as expected?”
“We flew OFT-2,” Nappi added, “And that was the uncrewed mission for the Starliner vehicle. It was very successful. Now we introduce the human. And so what are we going to do to establish that interface?”
“From prelaunch through ascent, we’re going to be looking at how the astronauts fit into the seats, how they interface with the equipment in the vehicle. when we go through approach and rendezvous.” After that, Nappi said, “We’ll confirm the thruster performance and manual scenarios are working as expected. We’ll check the communications. We’ll check the manual and auto navigation systems and the operation of the life support system with crew now in the vehicle.”
“CFT is a test flight, so we expect that there may be some lessons learned,” Nappi concluded.
A towering dust devil casts a serpentine shadow over the Martian surface in this image from NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The scene is a late-spring afternoon in the Amazonis Planitia region of northern Mars. Photo: NASA / JPL
NASA’s ambitious Mars Sample Return program, which plans to land on the Martian surface, collect rock and dust samples, and return them to Earth has been delayed and will be revised due to its high costs and long lead times.
Mars Sample Return is the highest priority solar system exploration goals identified by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine in the past three decadal surveys, but technical capability, costs and funding have stopped the mission short of execution.
Artist’s concept of what the Mars Sample Return lander might look like. Graphic: NASA / JPL
Changes Made, In Short
“An $11 billion budget is too expensive, and a 2040 return date is too far away,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said today.
NASA has asked the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to create an updated mission design that “has reduced complexity, improve resiliency and risk posture, and well as well as strong accountability and coordination,” sad Nicola “Nicky” Fox, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate today in a NASA press conference.
Original outline of the MSR Program Graphic: NASA
“NASA SMD will release a competitive solicitation in the immediate future for funded industry studies to investigate either 1) innovative and alternate MSR architectures or 2) innovative and alternate architecture elements, such as a smaller Mars Ascent Vehicle, that could offer lower life cycle cost, lower annual cost, provide earlier sample return,” Fox relayed in an accompanying press release.
Nelson said that JPL and other NASA centers will have until fall to prepare the new mission profile, and that sometime after that a revised plan will be released for Congressional and public scrutiny.
The board also pointed out other classical challenges for a Mars mission, such as launch window constraints (every other year), the potential for dust storms upon arrival, landing site certifications and so on.
Afterwards, Congressional appropriations committees recommended a budget that included a cut of $454.1 Million to NASA’s 2024 budget, specifically from the Mars Sample Return mission. That action left a lot of doubt about the program and whether it would be canceled outright, but it appears that NASA and JPL are attempting to put it back on track with the solicitation of new mission profiles and ideas.
Back To The Drawing Board
In response to the Independent Review Board, NASA filed a response and publicly released it today.
In it, NASA says that their new plan is to make several changes to the program in order to balance current technology and innovation. They also plan to reduce programmatic and technical risk, and decouple launch readiness dates.
“Independent review boards like the one we commissioned for Mars Sample Return help review whether we’re on the right track to meet our mission goals within the appropriate budget,” Sandra Connelly, deputy associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, said in a statement the agency released today. “We thank the board for its work, and now our job is to assess the report and address if there are elements of the program that need to change.”
NASA and the Canadian Space Agency have been conducting a competition for companies to provide nutritious and tasty food for astronauts on long-term missions, and that competition has been narrowed to five finalists on the American side, with three additional internationally-based competitors rounding out the field. Called the Deep Space Food Challenge, the goal of this competition is to generate novel food production technologies or systems that require minimal resources and produce minimal waste while creating items or cuisine that are actually appealing to the crew.
“The International Space Station is restocked every 60 to 90 days, and we are able to manage the waste generated from those payload deliveries,” said Denise Morris, program manager for Centennial Challenges which is managed out of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. “In order to get to Mars and beyond, we must adapt how we feed our crews with no resupply, little added waste and resources, and an ideal level of labor. The solutions derived from the Deep Space Food Challenge will bridge this massive technology gap, allowing us to venture further and longer than we ever have before.”
Two companies with facilities on the Space Coast are among the eight finalists:
Interstellar Labof Merritt Island, Florida, created a modular bioregenerative system for producing fresh microgreens, vegetables, mushrooms, and insects.
Nolux of Riverside, California, created a solution that mimics the photosynthesis that happens in nature to produce plant- and mushroom-based ingredients.
SATED (Safe Appliance, Tidy, Efficient, and Delicious) of Boulder, Colorado, developed a space cooking appliance that would allow astronauts to prepare a variety of meals from ingredients with long shelf lives.
Air Company of Brooklyn, New York, developed a system and processes for turning air, water, electricity, and yeast into food.
The five finalists will each receive $150,000 in prizes from NASA and advance to compete for up to $1.5 million in total prizes in Phase 3.
Additionally, there three internationally-based companies that were selected by NASA and the CSA to participate in Phase 3:
Enigma of the Cosmos of Melbourne, Australia, created an adaptive growing system to increase the efficiency of plants’ natural growth cycles.
Mycorena of Gothenburg, Sweden, developed a system that uses a combination of microalgae and fungi to produce a microprotein.
Solar Foods of Lappeenranta, Finland, created a system that uses gas fermentation to produce single-cell proteins.
Kernel Deltech / Eternal Bio
According to their press release, Kernel Deltech has created a unit that leverages fungi fermentation to create a sustainable, nutrient-rich food source for astronauts on long-duration missions. To accomplish this they have built a device that relies on artificial intelligence and robotics to do much of the work, reducing the complexity and hours required by human astronauts to gain nutrition from the system.
“After winning the previous phase, expectations were high. We are proud to have made it to the NASA final,” said Lucas Gago, Chief Innovation Officer of Eternal. “This technology has the potential to revolutionize the alternative protein industry, both for space exploration and democratizing access to good nutrition here on Earth.” Added Miguel Neumann, who has recently become the Company CEO.
Kernel Deltech says the prototype is no larger than a kitchen appliance and can be easily modularly introduced into habitats and spacecraft.
Interstellar Lab
Nutritional Closed-Loop Eco-Unit System, or NUCLEUS, developed by Interstellar Lab of Merritt Island, Florida, is a self-sustaining food production system yielding fresh greens, vegetables, mushrooms, and insects, which could provide nutrients for long-term space missions. Credits: NASA/Methuselah Foundation
Interstellar has developed a device that they are calling “Nucleus.” According to their marketing materials, they have “developed a closed-loop food-production system that incorporates microgreens, vegetables, mushrooms and insects that covering astronaut food gaps during long-term space missions.”
Interstellar adds that Nucleus passed Phase 1 and Phase 2 prototyping and has been tested at Kennedy Space Center. They add that the Phase 3 prototype will be delivered to NASA between July and October of this year.
Experiments To Grow Plants On ISS Already Ongoing
While the “Deep Space Food Challenge” winners will undoubtedly help extend the variety and efficiencies of astronaut cuisine in space, NASA has already been working on growing food aboard the International Space Station:
The agency states in an article they published that they have been experimenting with a device called “Veggie” that can grow greens for astronauts aboard the orbiting outpost: “The Vegetable Production System, known as Veggie, is a space garden residing on the space station. Veggie aims to help NASA study plant growth in microgravity, while adding fresh food to the astronauts’ diet and enhancing happiness and well-being on the orbiting laboratory.”
Three different varieties of plants growing in the Veggie plant growth chamber on the International Space Station were harvested in 2017. Photo: NASA
“The Veggie garden is about the size of a carry-on piece of luggage and typically holds six plants. Each plant grows in a “pillow” filled with a clay-based growth media and fertilizer. The pillows are important to help distribute water, nutrients and air in a healthy balance around the roots. Otherwise, the roots would either drown in water or be engulfed by air because of the way fluids in space tend to form bubbles.”
“Veggie” is among other prototypes being tested by NASA: “[An] Advanced Plant Habitat (APH), like Veggie, is a growth chamber on station for plant research. It uses LED lights and a porous clay substrate with controlled release fertilizer to deliver water, nutrients and oxygen to the plant roots.”
“Unlike Veggie, it is enclosed and automated with cameras and more than 180 sensors that are in constant interactive contact with a team on the ground at Kennedy, so it doesn’t need much day-to-day care from the crew,” NASA added.
In addition to dwarf wheat and other foods, “Veggie” has grown zinnias, which astronaut Scott Kelly brought back to Earth in 2016.
Astronaut Scott Kelly nursed dying space zinnias back to health on the International Space Station. He photographed a bouquet of the flowers in the space station’s cupola against the backdrop of Earth and shared the photo to his Instagram for Valentine’s Day 2016. Photo: NASA/Scott Kelly
Since Kelly assembled his orbiting bouquet, additional research has been ongoing. Plant research on Station has led to multiple papers in scientific journals, including results from the Seedling Growth investigations, which were subsequently published in Nature.
Also, according to NASA, “Another plant study, the Advanced Astroculture (ADVASC) experiment, tested a system to protect plants by removing viruses, bacteria, and mold from the plant growth chamber. That system has been used in the grocery industry to prolong the shelf-life of fruits and vegetables and in wine storage cellars.”
NASA adds, “To achieve the ultimate goal – growing plants for food in space and for habitats on the Moon and Mars – researchers must develop larger growth systems. The Veg-05 investigation is taking steps toward that goal by examining the effect of light quality and fertilizer on fruit production and analyzing the safety, nutritional value, and taste of the fruit.”
In addition to the work already completed and other work that is ongoing on ISS right now, NASA undoubtedly hopes to add to its portfolio of equipment, techniques and variety of growing foodstuffs in space. That will be vital not only to a long-duration crew’s health, but also their mental well-being. Having a taste of “home” so far away from it will undoubtedly be one of the little pleasures that make travelling interplanetary distances more bearable.
Yesterday in Washington D.C., NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and Japanese Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) Masahito Moriyama signed an agreement regarding a Japanese contribution to the Artemis Project, a pressurized lunar rover tentatively called Lunar Cruiser. The vehicle will be transported to the Moon by NASA, and should be available for the Artemis VII mission, currently scheduled for NET 2031.
Toyota released a video rendering of the Lunar Cruiser in 2023
Lunar Cruiser has been in development since 2019 by JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) and Toyota. The pressurized rover will allow for extended exploration past the range of the previously announced Lunar Terrain Vehicle, and will ostensibly allow for two astronaurs to remain aboard for up to thirty days. Like the LTV, it is expected to last ten years.
From Toyota’s Lunar Cruiser update at the 38th Space Symposium. Graphic: Toyota Corporation
According to a press release from Toyota, “The Lunar Cruiser seeks to achieve a high level of mobility and allow astronauts to explore safely and comfortably. We will contribute to this endeavor by offering the reliability, durability, driving performance, and FC (fuel cell) technology that Toyota has cultivated through long years of vehicle development. Technologies developed for the moon can then be fed back to the Earth and be used to create better vehicles and develop technologies for sustainable society and the planet.”
“Lunar Cruiser” is a working name for the lunar rover project, which Toyota makes clear. The company says that the vehicle is officially called a “crewed pressurized rover.” According to them, “It features a pressurized cabin, an enclosed space where the air pressure is controlled to create an environment similar to Earth’s. Unlike previous lunar rovers, this means that those onboard need not wear extravehicular suits, even in an unforgiving environment with one-sixth of Earth’s gravity and temperatures ranging from 120°C during the day to -170°C at night.”
The vehicle is slated to use Regenerative Fuel Cell technology and a 30-day mission duration, meaning it can get through an entire lunar night without needing an outside source to power the vehicle.
Fuel Cells To Power Lunar Cruiser
click to enlarge
Regenerative Fuel Cells have dual capabilities: also called reverse fuel cells or secondary fuel cells, are fuel cells that can be operated in two modes: electrolyzer mode and fuel cell mode. In electrolyzer mode, RFCs store water as hydrogen and oxygen. In fuel cell mode, the stored hydrogen and oxygen are used to generate power. RFCs can be powered with electricity to produce hydrogen and oxygen from water. With limited resources on the lunar surface, this technology may well come in quite handy: the South Pole, where Project Artemis is focusing, may well have water resources that could potentially be used with Lunar Cruiser.
Toyota – A Fuel Cell Powerhouse
Toyota is the world’s best-selling automaker, selling 11.2 million cars globally in 2023 for the fourth year in a row. They are also a technological leader in many aspects of vehicle design and technology. Industry analysts have also labeled Toyota as the commercial leader in hydrogen fuel cell technology, pointing out that the company has been at the forefront of the mass-market development of hydrogen cars for decades.
Toyota began working on fuel cell technology in 1992, and by 2005, the FCHV (Fuel Cell Hydrogen Vehicle) was available for sale in limited quantities in Japan and the U.S. In 2014, the Mirai was launched for sale in various global markets, making a mainstream hydrogen fuel cell car available to the public.
Toyota’s Comments On Lunar Cruiser Through The Years
Akio Toyoda Photo: Toyota
At the onset of the Land Cruiser project in 2019, Toyota Chairman and CEO Akio Toyoda said: “The automotive industry has long done business with the concepts of ‘hometown’ and ‘home country’ largely in mind. However, from now on, in responding to such matters as environmental issues of global scale, the concept of ‘home planet’, from which all of us come, will become a very important concept. Going beyond the frameworks of countries or regions, I believe that our industry, which is constantly thinking about the role it should fulfill, shares the same aspirations of international space exploration.”
Toyoda added at the time that “I am extremely happy that, for this project, expectations have been placed on the thus-far developed durability and driving performance of Toyota vehicles and on our fuel cell environmental technologies.”
Since then, Toyota and JAXA have made progress on the vehicle. In an update in the Toyota Times on September 16, 2023, Toyota announced that “[T]he joint research with JAXA was completed in 2022, and Toyota is currently in the preliminary development phase before beginning work on the main vehicle in 2024.”
Enter Mitsubishi, A Japanese Aerospace Giant
Toyota has also joined forces with another Japanese industrial giant, Mitsubishi. In the same 2023 update where the project phase transition was announced, Ken Yamashita, the Project Head of the Lunar Exploration Mobility Works Project at Toyota said “in late 2022, we confirmed that we would be working together with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, not just in the provision of individual components but on system-level development. We decided this would be a good opportunity to present the team structure behind development.”
The idea makes good sense. MHI is well experienced in aerospace projects and is currently working on a number of Japanese efforts that will not only add to the country’s scientific knowledge and aerospace capability but will also serve to inform projects like the Lunar Cruiser.
Mitsubishi’s HII-A Rocket
Atsushi Nakajima, of MHI Space Systems Division said in September 2023, “Currently, we are also working on space exploration-related projects, including a new cargo transporter, equipment for the I-HAB habitation module of the Gateway crewed lunar orbit station, and the LUPEX rover that will search for water resources on the moon’s surface. We will utilize our existing technologies in spacecraft integration, space environment resistance, and human space stays to help develop the crewed pressurized rover’s systems.”
“In addition,” Nakajima said, “we expect that data acquired from the moon’s surface by the LUPEX rover, which is being developed for launch in the mid-2020s, will contribute to the pressurized rover’s development.”
Now that Toyota and its partners have officially transitioned to its final development phase prior to vehicle production, it is fair to say that this vehicle is well on its way to the showroom floor: the South Pole region of Earth’s nearest celestial neighbor.
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