Honda will partner with U.S. companies to test in orbit a renewable energy technology it hopes to one day deploy on the moon's surface, the Japanese carmaker announced Friday.

The auto giant is developing a mechanism capable of generating electricity and oxygen continuously — enabling astronauts to breathe — thanks to solar energy and water known to be present in some lunar soils.

Now it plans to test this technology aboard the International Space Station, it said in a release, without giving a date.