The first Toyota to leave the Earth is not, as you might expect, an all wheel-drive rover intended to ensure that everything keeps going right on Mars.
Instead, it's a humanoid robot about the size of a Barbie doll.
Toyota and a group of Japanese companies and research institutions have created a real-world Astro Boy to join a space expedition to the International Space Station later this year.
Say hello to Kirobo, the first 'robonaut' to be cleared for space travel. No, really; Kirobo can hold a conversation, recognise emotion and nod when it agrees with you.
Developed by Toyota in collaboration with Dentsu, the University of Tokyo's Research Centre for Advanced Science and Technology, and Robo Garage, it’s one of two humanoid verbal-communication robots built for the Kibo Robot Project.
Kirobo stands 340mm tall and weighs just on a kilogram.
Fellow robot Mirata, a little bigger and also capable of learning, will stay behind as 'ground crew' and monitor Kirobo.
Kirobo and Mirata follow in the footsteps of several Toyota robots created to study personal transport and human dexterity. Previous Toyota robots have, amongst other things, played the trumpet and violin.
Robo Garage and the research centre worked on the robot's body and its movements, and Toyota was responsible for Kirobo's voice and face recognition functions, while Dentsu handled the conversation content and as well as the management of the project.
ASTRONAUT TRAINING
To qualify as a 'robonaut', Kirobo then had to a pass a range of tests, including a parabolic flight test to examine behaviour in 'zero G' conditions, and a vibration test, to ensure it was robust enough to withstand a rocket launch.
The little robot is scheduled to blast off from Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture on 4 August. On arrival, it will wait for the arrival of Commander Koichi Wakata in November or December.
Wakata and Kirobo will then hold the first conversation between a human and a robot in space - Stanley Kubrick, we feel, would have approved.
Wakata will return to Earth in late May or early June 2014, after a six-month stay aboard the ISS, but Kirobo will stay on until December 2014 to set a new record for a tour of duty on the ISS by a sentient being.