JAXA Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency

Takayanagi: For the last 20 years, Japan’s space agency has accomplished many things while using its Japanese character well. So my hope is that it will keep progressing to a higher level little by little, without losing that attitude. I’d like Japan’s space scientists to continue their efforts, making good use of the Japanese character trait of working realistically but with ambitious hopes in mind.

Tachibana: I have always been a supporter of Japanese space exploration, and am still. But if I may add one more thing to today’s discussion, it is that Japan’s economic conditions are really bad, and so is business. Countries around the world are basically running their economy based on Keynesian theory, where standard practice is to invest in public works during bad economic times. According to this theory, if ideas for public works projects run out, you just repeatedly build and tear down a pyramid in the desert, and the economy will eventually start to turn around. Public works are often such things. And, in reality, countries around the world follow this doctrine.

In fact, the money spent on space exploration has the same effect, from an economic standpoint. So rather than doing an unproductive thing like building and tearing down a pyramid in the desert, I think Japan should invest more money in space exploration as a project that has long-term benefits in very broad ways.

Akiyama: This clause was just removed from the law covering JAXA, but one very Japanese aspect about our country’s space program is that it has been restricted to peaceful purposes only. Japanese space exploration has been carried out according to the Constitution of Japan, under the pacifism that frames our society, and I think that this has been the greatest accomplishment. The only thing I strongly hope for is that Japan’s work in space won’t be used for military purposes. That’s it.

Kanai: The title of Mr. Mohri’s first lecture was “Japan’s Human Space Exploration ±20 Years.” Looking back at the past 20 years, I’d like to work on the future, thinking about what I would be able to say sitting here in this place 20 years from now.

Wakata: Next year, I will serve as the ISS commander during the second half of my six-month mission on the space station. All the spacecraft commanders before me, from Russia, the United States, China, Belgium and soon from Canada, have a military background. So I will be the first commander with a civil and engineering background.

So it is possible for Japan to turn out someone who can be qualified for such a position. This is due not to the person but to Japan’s technological capability. We astronauts wouldn’t get anywhere without it. We owe our work to the technological capability developed by the everyday efforts of the Japanese people.

I think the purpose of human space exploration is ultimately to sustain humankind. Japan has many world-class technologies. I think it is our responsibility, as a leading nation in science and technology, to use those technologies to sustain peace in Japan and around the world, as well as to develop new technology. And human space exploration is part of that process.

Mukai: To me, human space exploration is not something to think too hard about, but just something that allows us to expand the scope of our activity through science and technology. Unlike adults, children aren’t so concerned about this question of whether to go to space. I think the right direction for Japan will become apparent as these elements come together.

Mohri: I was in the fourth grade when I saw the images of the Sputnik satellite and got interested in space for the first time. At the same time, I was amazed by the manga “Astro Boy” and by nuclear power. I was also impressed by Japan’s first Antarctic observation ship, Soya, and the scientists onboard. All of these got me excited. And I was fourteen years old when Yuri Gagarin became the first human to fly to space. His exclamation “The Earth is blue” made me wonder what kind of blue it was. This was the moment I decided I wanted to be an astronaut.

My dream came true thirty years later, when I turned 44. While I was abroad, I happened to tell people that I had taken a picture of Gagarin on TV and that my dream really had come true. They were surprised that I had been so inspired by the event that I spent the next 30 years working on that dream.

At the same time, “space” has many other facets. When it becomes accessible to us, scientists try to exploit it for their interest, space science, and then for military, political, and business purposes. So many aspects can be involved. Today we’ve been discussing the direction Japan should take. I hope people will make wise decisions. For me, last year’s tsunami has strong significance when I think about Japan’s next steps. Thinking about human space exploration can itself be good practice for us to prepare ourselves for different hazards in the future. Of course, it is important to consider the financial implications, but before we make any decisions, a lot more people should be involved in the discussion.

Noguchi: As leaders and active astronauts, what is on our minds? We think we need to talk about an exciting future, to share a vision. Some people may think that we are always talking only about dreams, but in this country it is now only astronauts who can talk about such things. What kind of future do we want? There may be no promised budget or public consensus, but we’d like to share our thoughts about human space exploration with everyone. My colleagues in this are these members here, and the astronauts who couldn’t make it today: astronauts Yui, Onishi, Furukawa, and Hoshide, who is currently in space. We are supporting Japan’s human spaceflight now. We are all active astronauts.

Let me introduce just three ideas. We would like to fly to space from Tanegashima. We already have a launch vehicle. We have successfully returned a capsule from space, with HAYABUSA, but not yet a human. So we are now working with engineers on the technology to safely return spacecraft carrying humans.

Next, I think our history is, at the end of the day, about growing people. Next year, astronaut Wakata will serve as the ISS commander. He is a representative of Japan. This is really the culmination of our history. But my role is to help hand off the baton from astronaut Wakata to astronaut Kanai. And five years from now, I expect that astronaut Kanai will be confidently talking about the things we’ve been discussing today – such as technology-oriented nations and the roles and responsibilities of humans.

The final idea is about bringing the humanities into space research. As Mr. Takayanagi mentioned earlier, our outcomes tend to be talked about only in terms of science. But this shouldn’t be the case. Our outcomes are meant for all humankind, and we want people with arts and humanities backgrounds to join us, too. Working with experts in social psychology and linguistics, I have now dedicated myself to paving the way for space applications from the point of view of the humanities. In the future, a student of social psychology might be saying, “I cannot do fractional division, but I must go to the Moon this summer to study group dynamics on the surface.”

Space is not only about science. By including arts and humanities as well as science, what we are ultimately aiming for is “comprehensive knowledge.” Eventually, we have to bring what we have obtained by going to space to everyone, so we astronauts would like to continue working on this project. So, you, who are 10 years old now, and you who were that age 50 years ago, please join us on the journey to space.

Muroyama: Listening to today’s discussion, my thoughts were that everyone was talking openly and that such interesting discussion is rare. Mr. Tachibana’s talk was also very compelling.

But listening objectively, it sounded to me that everyone was, after all, talking about the same thing – about the comprehensive knowledge that Astronaut Noguchi was talking about just a minute ago. As humans, we have expanded our perspective on the world with the spirit of adventure and intellectual curiosity, asking questions such as “What is space?”, “What are humans?”, “Where did we come from and where are we heading?”, “How can we be happy?”, and “What kind of society should we make?”. There must be many ways to explore such questions. We were able to discuss some of them here today, which shows that the panelists here are all full of intellectual curiosity, and in that sense, a very like-minded group.