Japan space plans may include manned moon base

Japan space plans may include manned moon base
Mon Feb 28, 2005 5:56 AM GMT

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's space agency is drawing up plans that could include manned space flights and a manned research base on the moon, a newspaper says.

Japan took a step towards restoring faith in its space programme on Saturday when it put a satellite in orbit, 15 months after its previous attempt ended in humiliating failure when the rocket had to be blown up shortly after launch.

That failure was particularly painful because it came shortly after China successfully put a man into space -- a move that Japan said at the time it had no plans to emulate.

The daily Mainichi Shimbun said on Monday a draft long-term plan being drawn up by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) includes developing a vehicle similar to the U.S. space shuttle by 2025.

Around the same time, it hopes to start constructing a research base on the moon, the paper said.

Other plans include using satellites to send information on disasters such as tsunami directly to mobile phones, it said.

An official at JAXA declined to comment on the possible contents of the plan, which is expected to be finalised by March 31, the end of Japan's fiscal year.

Article: http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/new...55558Z_01_HOL819374_RTRUKOC_0_JAPAN-SPACE.xml

It seems Japan has had some troule getting started in the space race, but maybe their recent success can give them a boost. I'm not sure how likely it is that they'll have a base on the moon, but hey, there's nothing like an ambitious plan. It's good to see countries competing in the space race again. I think the main reason America hasn't done a whole lot in recent years is because there wasn't much competition to push them forward. Look what having the Russians to compete with did for space exploration. Maybe things are changing and I hope so. Go Japan!

when I think of manned bases on the moon, I always think of Clive Cussler's Cyclops. In my opinion a great book. Many plot turns and twists and just a very fascinating story, and when it was written (and maybe even still) it was not an extremely unlikely scenario.

I found an article that actually gives details of the plan.

html/news/2005/02/28/20050228org00m300063000c.html | パソコン教室|開業|起業|独立|アントレ|フランチャイズ情報サイト

And translated a bit of it.

窶ｰF窶厖??藩懌?廃窶｢ﾂｪ窶禿ｬ窶堙??堙債、窶伉ｾ窶配ﾅ地窶儺ﾂ債ｸ窶堙娯?吮??窶堙?椎ｽ窶儺ﾂ債ｸ窶堙ｰﾅｽﾃ･窶牌窶堙遺?禿壺?｢W窶堙嫁断窶堋ｰ窶堋ｽﾂ。5窶扼ﾅ津｣窶堙懌?堙
窶堙嫁椎ｽ窶禿岩?儺ﾂ債ｸﾆ陳哉畜ﾆ鍛ﾆ暖窶堙ｰﾅ?J窶敖ｭ窶堋ｵ10窶扼ﾅ津｣窶堙可人ﾅ?ﾃ披?堙娯?卍ｷﾅ?ﾃｺ窶佚伉催昶?堙俄?｢K窶牌窶堙按絶?ｦ窶堙｢ﾆ竪ﾆ値ﾆ停?ｹﾆ樽ﾂー窶堙固?m窶｢ﾃ
窶堙嫁?ﾃ問?堋ｷ窶堙ｩ窶ｹZﾂ術窶堙固?m窶板ｧ窶堙ｰ窶禿塲ｽw窶堋ｷﾂ。20窶扼ﾅ津｣窶堙俄?堙債、窶猫ﾂ人ﾅ?ﾃｮ窶冢窶堙固?J窶敖ｭ窶堙俄?吮?ｦﾅｽﾃｨ窶堋ｵﾂ、窶伉ｾ窶配ﾆ竪
ﾆ値ﾆ停?ｹﾆ樽ﾂー窶堙ｰ窶藩懌?廃窶堋ｵ窶堋ｽ窶敖ｭ窶彭ﾅｽ{ﾂ静昶?堙固?J窶敖ｭ窶堙?ﾂ青ｷ窶堙ｨﾂ最ｾ窶堙ｱ窶堋ｾﾂ。

In the field of space exploitation, from among the solar system investigation, we hold
exploration of the moon to be an important aim. In five years to develop a lunar surface
robot lander, in 10 years time to aim for development of techniques required to ensure
energy, water &c. to support long term residence of humans (on the moon). In 20 years
time to embark on development of a manned base, also including development of solar
energy electricty generation facilities.

窶堋ｱ窶堙ｪ窶堙ｧ窶堙固ｽﾃ?ﾅ陳ｻ窶堙娯?堋ｽ窶堙淞、窶猫ﾂ人窶ｰF窶厖??ﾋ??慊ｮ窶堙俄?堙?ﾂ静鞘?ｹﾃ俄?廬窶堙嫁ｽﾃｦ窶堙ｨ窶枠窶堙楪。ﾂ催?鞘?ｰ窶堙?窶扼ﾅ?ﾃ披?堙債、7ﾂ坂??窶ｹ@
窶堙娯?佚??堋ｿﾂ湘｣窶堋ｰ窶堙可青ｬﾅ津ｷ窶堋ｵ窶堋ｽH2Aﾆ陳哉単ﾆ鍛ﾆ暖窶堙個信窶版?ﾂ青ｫﾅ津ｼﾂ湘｣窶堙｢ﾂ坂?伉催帚?ｰF窶厖?湛ﾆ弾ﾂーﾆ歎ﾆ停?｡ﾆ停?懌?堙??堙娯?ｹZﾂ術ﾂ習
窶慊ｾ窶堙ｰﾂ進窶堙溪?堙ｩﾂ。10窶扼ﾅ津｣窶堙俄?堙最ｽﾅｸﾅ?ﾃｺﾅｽﾃ･窶氾哉陳哉単ﾆ鍛ﾆ暖ﾅ?J窶敖ｭ窶堙??ｰF窶厖?湛ﾆ弾ﾂーﾆ歎ﾆ停?｡ﾆ停?懌?堙俄?｢ﾂｨﾅｽ窶倪?堙ｰ窶尿窶倪?披?堋ｷ窶堙ｩ
窶督ｳﾂ人窶｢ﾃ｢窶ｹ窶ｹ窶ｹ@ﾂ「HTVﾂ」窶堙固ｽﾃ?窶廃窶ｰﾂｻﾂ、20窶扼ﾅ津｣窶堙俄?堙坂?｢ﾃ?坂?倪?堙姑湛ﾆ馳ﾂーﾆ湛ﾆ歎ﾆ槌槌暖ﾆ停?ｹ窶堙娯?堙ｦ窶堋､窶堙遺?猫ﾂ人ﾂ催?ｽg
窶廃窶尿窶倪?披?ｹ@窶堙娯?愿?ｽﾂｩ窶堙??堙固?J窶敖ｭ窶吮?ｦﾅｽﾃｨ窶堙ｰ窶禿壺?｢W窶堙俄?堋ｵ窶堋ｽﾂ。

In order to realise the above, and to aggressively come to grips with manned space
activities we have decided on the following objectives.
1 - In the first five years improve the reliability of the H2A rocket whose seventh flight
succeeded and proceed with acquiring technological skills by means of the
International Space Station.
2 - In 10 years time, develop next generation rocket and bring the ISS unmanned cargo
transport (HTV) into use.
3 - In 20 years time, embark on the independent development of a manned space
transport such as America's space shuttle.

Brooker, it hasn't been well publicized, but I do believe the European Space Agency has been giving America some competition. The landing of a probe on Titan is a good example of such.

The ESA is also involved in a few other note-worthy projects, like the construction of the largest space-based telescope (will surpass the HUBBLE), and , er, other stuff (that I don't have the time to look up. ;p

You can devise plans...

...but doing them is another matter.

The problem with any manned mission to the Moon is that, are the people planning for the mission allowed to do it or not?

We have seen both the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R. banned from doing any manned mission to the Moon. And recently also China and India.

Does the same goes for Japan?



As for E.S.A.'s space telescope.

I don't know whic telescope you're talking, but if you're talking about the Next Generation Space Telescope (now renamed as the James Webb Space Telescope) it was jointly developed with N.A.S.A. and the C.S.A. . The same also goes for Hubble.



As for competition.

Competition will only reduce the players into pieces. In short, no one will wins.



As for the space race.

Well... When did it began? Since there's no such as a space race at all, there's only propaganda to make people fight each other.



As for "Other plans include using satellites to send information on disasters such as tsunami directly to mobile phones, it said."

Great, wireless terror! Instant mass panic in the press of a single button.

digicross said:

We have seen both the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R. banned from doing any manned mission to the Moon. And recently also China and India.

Does the same goes for Japan?

Click to expand...

Banned? By who?

As for "Other plans include using satellites to send information on disasters such as tsunami directly to mobile phones, it said."

Great, wireless terror! Instant mass panic in the press of a single button.

Click to expand...

Or the ability to save lives by getting out of the way of it.

Brooker said:

Banned? By who?

Click to expand...

The great world conspiracy Digicross likes to hint at in pretty much every post he makes. I asked him several times who might be behind that conspiracy but IIRC he never answered.

digicross said:

...but doing them is another matter.


As for competition.

Competition will only reduce the players into pieces. In short, no one will wins.

Click to expand...

I disagree with you there.

I think that competition often introduces an element of motivation that may be lacking. With competition comes a drive to advance that doesn't otherwise exist. This is true in many aspects not just the space race. If Detroit auto makers would have had their way in the 70's and early 80's there would have been no competition from Japanese carmakers and American cars would still be shoddily made aircraft carrier sized boxes of steel.

the moon's surface -- development is an ostensible announcement.
Truth! JAXA wants to make a space colony in fact.
Many OTAKU(s) must be in JAXA.

that's good news. but the problems on earth?

first, they should achieve these things:

more workplaces than jobseekers
laws against being poor/having no money
reduce the amount of special population group members by 1:20
laws against wrong data, especially cruel religious illustrations
one common language

digicross said:

We have seen both the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R. banned from doing any manned mission to the Moon. And recently also China and India.

Click to expand...

"we" might have, but I certainly haven't.

PaulTB said:

"we" might have, but I certainly haven't.

Click to expand...

probably it means, due to insufficient translation, these nations have iced their moon mission plans. better to say: have put their plans "on ice".

such sentences are difficult to translate, though valid in the right context.