The information on this page was published in the past, thus it may be different from the current status.
To check the date of issuance, please refer to the following URL for the list of interviews, or for the list of special articles.


?Voyage to the world of Le Petit Prince -- What we can learn from asteroids --
Makoto Yoshikawa
Here is an essay by Associate Professor Yoshikawa, a world-famous leader in celestial mechanics. Yoshikawa has been involved in the calculation of the orbits of "Hayabusa" and the asteroid "Itokawa".
(JAXA Website Editing Team)
If you please --- draw me a sheep!  What!   Draw me a sheep! (c) Akemi Ogura 2005

This is a famous quotation from the beginning of The Little Prince (Le Petit Prince (*1). A pilot who made an emergency landing in a desert first met with the Little Prince through this conversation. As they exchanged words in the mysterious world of space-time, the pilot was not sure if this was a dream or reality. But the pilot was soon enlightened and realized that something was missing from the kingdom of mankind.

The Little Prince of Antoine de Saint-Exupery is one of my favorite novels. It is a very peculiar story because it can be regarded as a fairy tale for children, but for adults, it can also be a satire against mankind or society. Considering the author was an army pilot at the time when he wrote the novel (between 1942 and 43), we may find a deeper message in this story. (*2)

I have often wondered why the author decided that the prince came from an asteroid, because an asteroid is a very miniscule object in space. Why did Antoine de Saint-Exupery choose an asteroid as the home of the Petit Prince?



(*1) Translated from the original Le Petit Prince of Antoine de Saint-Exupery by Katherine Woods, published by A Harvest/HBJ Book
(*2) The world of Le Petit Prince, Mikio Tukazaki, published by Chuo Shinsho
1/5 NEXT