Japan has an ambitious plan to send men to the moon by 2030 as part of a multinational mission and is determined they'll have a ride when they get there. Japan's space agency JAXA and partner Toyota have revealed that the pressurized, manned lunar rover — announced earlier this year — should be ready to launch by 2029.

The six-wheeled vehicle will carry two people up to 6,200 miles using solar power and fuel cell technology. At 20 feet long, 17 feet wide and 12 feet tall, it'll have 140 square feet of habitable space. Thanks to the pressurization, astronauts won't need spacesuits while inside.

The timeline is pretty busy, and considering the challenges of developing tech for human space exploration, Toyota and JAXA will do well to meet their deadlines. The official plan runs for three years, up to 2022, with a tentative plan for a push toward launch between 2022 and 2029.

• Fiscal year 2019: Identifying technological elements that need to be developed for driving on the surface of the moon; drawing up specifications for a prototype rover
• Fiscal year 2020: Manufacturing test parts for each technological element; manufacturing a prototype rover
• Fiscal year 2021: Testing and evaluating both the manufactured test parts and the prototype rover
• From 2022: Manufacture and evaluation of a 1:1 scale prototype rover; acquisition and verification testing of data on driving systems required to explore the moon's polar regions
• From 2024: Design, manufacture, and evaluation of an engineering model of the rover; design of the actual flight model
• From 2027: Manufacture, and performance and quality testing of the flight model

At that point, the rover will be ready for a scheduled 2030 launch. In theory, it will arrive on the moon ahead of the human explorers and drive autonomously to meet them. JAXA wants to use it to help astronauts explore the lunar poles in search of frozen water, while at the same time developing tech that could be used on other planets. If the ambitious project works out, it'll give astronauts a cozy escape from the lunar desert's magnificent desolation.

In early 2019, Toyota joined forces with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to develop a six-wheeled rover capable of transporting two astronauts and their gear on the moon. Development work is ongoing, the process is expected to take nearly a decade, but the partners have already agreed on a name.

It's an off-roader, albeit not one Toyota is used to developing, so it earned the name Lunar Cruiser. The Japanese firm explained it chose that name because the vehicle's basic mission is the same as the original Land Cruiser's: to bring its passengers home alive. FJ Cruiser-like trim on the front end creates another link to Toyota's SUVs.

While the Land Cruiser was designed to effortlessly cross some of the most treacherous terrain on the planet, the 20-foot-long Lunar Cruiser will need to take two astronauts on a 6,200-mile exploration trip (or, in Instagram influencer-speak, #vanlife) while relying on both a giant solar panel and a hydrogen fuel cell for power. As we reported in 2019, it will reach the Moon before the crew, and it will drive autonomously to greet them when they arrive. Once aboard, they'll head towards the lunar poles in search of frozen water.

Toyota explained the rover will be pressurized, so astronauts will be able to remove their spacesuits when they're in the vehicle's 140-square-foot passenger compartment. Interestingly, the firm is also studying how the pressurized rover could help a growing group of companies named Team Japan create a lunar surface-based society, and it's making a list of the many hurdles that need to be cleared before humans can colonize the Moon.

We're not there yet, and the Lunar Cruiser isn't scheduled to blast off until 2030. As of writing, engineers are using computer simulations to study its power and heat dissipation properties. They're also assessing the type of tires or wheels needed, and they're using both virtual reality-based software and scale models to find the best interior layout. None of the Lunar Cruiser's tech will find its way into the next-generation Land Cruiser, which should ditch its V8 and adopt a twin-turbocharged V6, but Toyota may choose to hide an Easter egg or two in the truck.