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NASA Proposed Sending Japanese Astronauts to the Moon
NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine secretly proposed using US rockets to send Japanese astronauts to the Moon, Japanese newspaper The Mainichi reports, citing "multiple sources" familiar with the talks.
According to the paper, Bridenstine made the proposal during an unofficial September 2019 visit in which he met with space industry leaders, including the head of the Japanese government's Space Policy Committee. Bridenstine reportedly encouraged attendees to consider a future in which Japanese astronauts joined Americans on the lunar surface.
US and Japan in talks to boost space ties, send Japanese astronauts to moon in 2020s
If this were to be realized, it would be Japan's first moon landing, and it could possibly make the country only the second in history, after the U.S., to put a person on the astronomical body. The U.S. believes the moon is set to become a strategic point in the near future both in terms of economics and security, and its moves to strengthen ties with Japan are apparently part of an aim to check China's rise to interstellar prominence.
[...] At the end of May 2019, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe received U.S. President Donald Trump as a state guest, and declared that Japan was reviewing possible participation in Washington's program.
Bridenstine then held an unofficial meeting on Sept. 24, 2019, in Tokyo with figures including Yoshiyuki Kasai, head of the government's Space Policy Committee and honorary chairman at the Central Japan Railway Co., Takafumi Matsui, deputy head of the same committee as well as the director at the Chiba Institute of Technology's Planetary Exploration Research Center and a professor emeritus at the University of Tokyo, and Takehiko Matsuo, head of the National Space Policy Secretariat among others.
At the meeting, Bridenstine is reported to have petitioned the attendees to carry out a forward-thinking assessment with a vision of having Japanese astronauts stand alongside American ones on the moon.
Related: Japan Planning to Put a Man on the Moon Around 2030
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(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday January 04 2020, @02:16AM (1 child)
Not surprising something like this is getting discussed - not sure if it will gain the political traction it needs to execute.
Lorna Onizuka worked (works?) in the JAXA office in my building in Houston. JAXA has been pretty steadfast in their participation with NASA endeavors, both before and after her husband, Ellison Onizuka died on Challenger.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by takyon on Saturday January 04 2020, @02:47AM
Japan wants to put someone on the Moon, and this could be a relatively cheap and accessible arrangement to make that happen.
Whether or not the Artemis Project can survive U.S. politics and aggressive deadlines/delays is another story.
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(Score: 2) by Mojibake Tengu on Saturday January 04 2020, @04:16AM (6 children)
Space is difficult. Very difficult, technically. Everyone should be cooperating with everyone on that. Every fault is potentially critical.
And what we got instead of space travels promised, in past 30 years? Religious wars, distorted math, lost know-how, marketing campaigns replacing true engineering...
Japan may have better long term success with their own technology and using Russian engines, as Americans do.
Rust programming language offends both my Intelligence and my Spirit.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday January 04 2020, @04:34AM (2 children)
Want long-term success in space? Use fully reusable rockets.
Until then, it's playtime. A few missions [wikipedia.org] to keep skilled scientists and engineers busy is fine. But the real fun begins when a superheavy payload costs less than $10 million to launch.
Could fully reusable rockets have been developed decades ago (before an era of petaflops performance)? Who knows, but it could have been even worse if CompanyX hadn't stepped onto the scene.
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(Score: 2) by Mojibake Tengu on Saturday January 04 2020, @11:07AM (1 child)
Reusable rockets are uneconomical by physics, and by chemistry, and any amount of political marketing will not help this.
Rust programming language offends both my Intelligence and my Spirit.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday January 04 2020, @12:04PM
Hahaha. You went full mojibake.
If that's not satire, check back in a year or two so we can laugh at you.
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(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Sunday January 05 2020, @06:22AM (2 children)
Japan already has their own rockets, and launch facility:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H-IIA [wikipedia.org]
Japan may have better long-term success just because they're not busy shooting themselves in the foot over and over like some other places...
(Score: 2, Disagree) by Mojibake Tengu on Sunday January 05 2020, @08:17AM (1 child)
I know, but launching own tech costs money, a lot of money. And brings risks. Acceptable risks for probes, but unacceptable for humans.
One fundamental reason for said Japan-American space deal is a huge American debt to Japan. It's an unrecoverable debt and Japan just tries to recover at least some part of it by getting free or cheap delivery to orbit or elsewhere. I am in very doubts this will succeed, in current geopolitical situation. Japan is still occupied country, a non-sovereign and not in position to impose conditions. It will result to Japan bloody paying for that.
However, for launching true people both safely and cheaply at this moment, Russian engines are still the best option. That's why Americans themselves are buying them, instead of making their own.
Rust programming language offends both my Intelligence and my Spirit.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Grishnakh on Monday January 06 2020, @06:05AM
No, Americans are buying Russian engines because they're too incompetent to make their own any more. This is changing quickly though with SpaceX and Blue Origin.