Meet Nissan’s latest partner: NASA. According to a report from Wired, the Japan-based automobile company is teaming up with the United States Government space agency. The two entities will work together primarily to create autonomous vehicle technology, with the aim of using these self-driving vehicles both on Earth and in space.

Neither Nissan, nor NASA, expect their project goals to be met overnight. On the contrary, their partnership agreement will last for five years, giving them ample time to invent new technologies or update existing ones.

This will not be the first high-profile project to focus on autonomous vehicles. In fact, at this week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, self-driving cars were one of the most common sights on the floor. Models from Mercedes and Audi were especially wowing for audiences.

Nissan and NASA, though, have a slightly different mission statement than their automobile industry contemporaries. First of all, the two entities will be focusing on developing zero-emission autonomous cars, meaning that their partnership will focus not only on designing robotic vehicles, but also on boosting the energy efficiency of cars.

Secondly, the space angle alone makes this project a good deal different from what the likes of Audi, Mercedes, and Google are doing with self-driving cars. The partnership will start by testing modified Nissan models in order to develop a reliable self-driving system. Ultimately, though, one of the goals of the partnership is to apply that technology to space rovers and other vehicles that can be sent up to Mars or other planets.

Not that NASA will be coming to the table empty-handed. On the contrary, the space agency already knows a fair bit about pairing robotics and vehicle systems. NASA’s Mars rovers are not entirely self-driving, but the agency will still be able to help Nissan along by sharing some of the technology and engineering that went into building those exploratory vehicles.