Not many know this but back in 1969, NASA began testing Honda's 90cc 'monkey bikes' to transport astronauts on the moon surface. Soon it was replaced by in-house electric bikes cooled with beeswax that were tested aboard zero-gravity flights to replicate lunar gravity.

The project did not really take any shape since the engineers managed to fit the lunar rover buggy on the Apollo 15 spaceship successfully. The mini-bike was more of a backup plan just in-case the buggy couldn't make it in time.

Now, Suzuki just announced its plan to get on with the space race by backing ISpace, a company that plans to build a city on the moon by 2040. Suzuki will fund two lunar missions that will take flight somewhere between now and 2020.

ISpace is a Japanese tech company that currently manages team HAKUTO which is participating in the Google Lunar XPRIZE. The company plans to conduct two lunar missions that will eventually land its self-developed lunar lander on the moon's surface, and Suzuki will support this mission by being one of the co-founding companies.

The lunar lander will gradually be developed to provide regular transportation services to the moon and back. Thus will begin moon's colonization by humans and we might even get to see a few Gixxers' and the mighty GSX-1000Rs' blazing the moon tracks on a moon circuit.

How intriguing!

Suzuki is one of the big companies that has shelled out finances that amount to $90 million for ISpace to spearhead with its 20-year moon colonization plan. Amongst them are Konica Minolta, Development Bank of Japan, Japan Airlines, and Tokyo Broadcasting System.

ISpace predicts that by 2040, there will be at least 1000 people inhabiting the earth satellite and will have over 10,000 visitors every year. There will also be a myriad of industries including construction, manufacturing, steel, energy, communications, transportation, agriculture, medicine, and tourism.

Of course, there is ZeroG of Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic who has already sold tickets for space tours, Elon Musk's SpaceX and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin. But none of them interest us as much as this ISpace does. Why? because no one else will have the first bike on the moon. That's why.

Suzuki is aiming for mutual technological development with iSpace through its funding. So tonight when you go back to sleep, hope you dream of riding on the moon. And who knows, it might as well come true in the future.