- Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has announced its plan to collaborate with Toyota for an exploration mission to the Moon. Toyota is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer. It is expected to develop a lunar rover for the mission
- Toyota had previously co-developed a small robot named Kirobo that was sent to the International Space Station in 2013. Kirobo, became the first robot to speak in outer space.
- Recently, Israel has launched the Beresheet- world’s first largely privately funded spacecraft to land on the moon. If the landing is successful, Israel will become the fourth nation to soft land on moon after the former Soviet Union (Luna 2, 1959), the USA (Ranger 4, 1962) and China (Chang’e 4, 2018).
