B.C. woman facing steep medical bills, uncertain future after Thailand crash
The family of a Victoria, B.C., woman who was seriously injured in an accident in Thailand is pleading for help as medical bills pile up.
Toyota is working with Japan's space agency on a vehicle to explore the lunar surface, with ambitions to help people live on the moon by 2040 and then go live on Mars, company officials said Friday.
The vehicle being developed with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency is called Lunar Cruiser, whose name pays homage to the Toyota Land Cruiser sport utility vehicle. Its launch is set for the late 2020's.
The vehicle is based on the idea that people eat, work, sleep and communicate with others safely in cars, and the same can be done in outer space, said Takao Sato, who heads the Lunar Cruiser project at Toyota Motor Corp.
"We see space as an area for our once-in-a-century transformation. By going to space, we may be able to develop telecommunications and other technology that will prove valuable to human life," Sato told The Associated Press.
Gitai Japan Inc., a venture contracted with Toyota, has developed a robotic arm for the Lunar Cruiser, designed to perform tasks such as inspection and maintenance. Its "grapple fixture" allows the arm's end to be changed so it can work like different tools, scooping, lifting and sweeping.
Gitai Chief Executive Sho Nakanose said he felt the challenge of blasting off into space has basically been met but working in space entails big costs and hazards for astronauts. That's where robots would come in handy, he said.
Since its founding in the 1930s, Toyota has fretted about losing a core business because of changing times. It has ventured into housing, boats, jets and robots. Its net-connected sustainable living quarters near Mount Fuji, called Woven City, where construction is starting this year.
Japanese fascination with the moon has been growing.
A private Japanese venture called ispace Inc. is working on lunar rovers, landing and orbiting, and is scheduled for a moon landing later this year. Businessman Yusaku Maezawa, who recently took videos of himself floating around in the International Space Station, has booked an orbit around the moon aboard Tesla CEO Elon Musk's Starship.
Toyota engineer Shinichiro Noda said he is excited about the lunar project, an extension of the automaker's longtime mission to serve customers and the moon may provide valuable resources for life on Earth.
"Sending our cars to the moon is our mission," he said. Toyota has vehicles almost everywhere. "But this is about taking our cars to somewhere we have never been."
The family of a Victoria, B.C., woman who was seriously injured in an accident in Thailand is pleading for help as medical bills pile up.
Canadians will learn Tuesday the entirety of the federal Liberal government's new spending plans, and how they intend to pay for them, when Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland tables the 2024 federal budget.
An Ontario woman was shocked to find she’d been charged nearly $7,000 after unknowingly using an unauthorized taxi company while on vacation in January.
As Canadians deal with a crushing housing shortage, high rental prices and inflationary price pressures, now Equifax Canada is warning that Canadian consumers are increasingly under stress"from the surging cost of living.
An inmate who escaped from Dorchester Penitentiary in Dorchester, N.B., on Saturday evening has a long history of violent crimes and a history of escaping custody.
The annual inflation rate ticked higher in March compared with February, boosted by higher prices for gasoline, Statistics Canada said Tuesday.
Tim Hortons is launching flatbread pizzas nationally in a bid to pick up more afternoon and evening customers.
Ontario Provincial Police are investigating the theft of "several thousand" dollars worth of tropical fish stolen from an Upper Ottawa Valley restaurant last week.
NASA confirmed Monday that a mystery object that crashed through the roof of a Florida home last month was a chunk of space junk from equipment discarded at the International Space Station.
Just steps from Parliament Hill is a barber shop that for the last 100 years has catered to everyone from prime ministers to tourists.
A high score on a Foo Fighters pinball machine has Edmonton player Dave Formenti on a high.
A compound used to treat sour gas that's been linked to fertility issues in cattle has been found throughout groundwater in the Prairies, according to a new study.
While many people choose to keep their medical appointments private, four longtime friends decided to undergo vasectomies as a group in B.C.'s Lower Mainland.
A popular highway in Alberta's Banff National Park now has a 'no stopping zone' to help protect two bears.
B.C. resident Robert Conrad spent thousands of hours on Crown land developing an unusual bond with deer.
A Sudbury woman said her husband was bringing the recycling out to the curb Wednesday night when he had to make a 'mad dash' inside after seeing a bear.
A school teacher who took part in the Quebec version of the Survivor reality TV show took time off work to be a contestant is now out of a job.
A young actor from Prince Edward Island is getting the chance to fulfill a childhood dream, playing the precocious and iconic Anne Shirley on stage.