July 7, 2020 (JST)

National Research & Development Agency
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (President: YAMAKAWA Hiroshi, hereinafter, "JAXA") will launch two initiatives to help a wide variety of companies and other organizations to create a new businesses within the field of lifestyle and healthcare, pursuing for improvements of people’s daily lives from space perspective.

The first initiative is the launch of the THINK SPACE LIFE platform as an activity to foster the creation of new businesses under the JAXA Space Innovation through Partnership and Co-creation (J-SPARC) program^*1. This platform is intended to help improve both living in space and living on Earth by meeting the challenges faced in human space activities. Specifically, JAXA will implement this initiative to help companies and others to find the seeds for new businesses in the field of lifestyle and healthcare, and promote R&D to create an actual businesses. Through this platform, JAXA will provide the incubation functions throughout the process from formulating an idea to developing a product/service, as well as a forum to promote community activities for business to business and industry-academia-government collaboration.

The second initiative is the solicitation for new ideas in daily necessities that will help meet the challenges faced in both living in space as well as on Earth. JAXA will solicit proposals for addressing the issues along with the solutions, which will be selected and will be developed into actual products by the proposers. These products will then be undergoing several steps, including the check by astronauts, to be actually used in the International Space Station (ISS) in and after fiscal year 2022.

JAXA will organically link the solicitation ideas to the agency’s joint research and demonstration opportunities^*2, and also with the THINK SPACE LIFE platform to foster the creation of new markets in the field of lifestyle and healthcare toward the age of space living.

For the development of a new space-related market in the lifestyle and healthcare fields, JAXA has launched the THINK SPACE LIFE platform to create the daily necessities and the solutions that will meet the challenges to improve both living in space and living on Earth. This platform will eventually contribute to increase the performance of astronauts, to satisfy the space travelers and also to implement manned exploration missions on the moon and Mars. In addition, it will also help to create services for new lifestyles and work styles on Earth which may be contributing to the solution of social issues, including the achievement of the SDGs^*3, the goals related to health and living in particular.

The platform will help a range of players to conduct R&D and create businesses by offering them the incubation functions and a forum for community activities in the aforementioned fields. Specifically, JAXA will conduct activities, such as holding workshops to foster the co-creation of ideas, promoting mentoring by experts in the related fields, and providing demonstration opportunities to accelerate the process of formulating business plans through the development of services and demonstration. JAXA will plan, manage and provide the opportunities in collaboration with the incubation partners selected for the platform. JAXA will continue to explore the market in the fields in cooperation with a range of partner companies.

★THINK SPACE LIFE platform
 https://aerospacebiz.jaxa.jp/solution/j-sparc/projects/think-space-life/ (Japanese only)

For the development of daily necessities to be used in the ISS, JAXA will solicit proposals for addressing the issues along with the solution that will apply to both living in space and living on Earth. JAXA has been supporting human space activities in the ISS with excellent supplies provided　by the companies in Japan to fulfill astronaut’s duties in space. In this new initiative, JAXA will solicit for new ideas in daily necessities that will be used in the ISS and improve the quality of life (QOL) of astronauts, who are imposed various restrictions in space and also contribute to the challenges faced on Earth. The ideas selected by the JAXA will be developed into products, which will then be checked by astronauts, going through safety validation and other criteria, to be actually used in the ISS.

★Solicitation for new ideas in daily necessities that will help meet the challenges faced in both living in space as well as on Earth:
 https://iss.jaxa.jp/med/partner/71532.html (Japanese only)

JAXA Space Innovation through Partnership and Co-creation (J-SPARC) is a program that aims to create new ideas for space related-businesses through collaboration between private companies and JAXA. The two parties will jointly examine the business concept and foster so-called "exit-oriented" technological development and demonstration. JAXA has been implementing this program in May 2018 and has now supporting approximately 20 new businesses and other projects under the program, including activities for new market creation and providing a forum for cross-field collaboration.

【 J-SPARC official website】https://aerospacebiz.jaxa.jp/solution/j-sparc/ (Japanese only)

Of the 17 goals comprising the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), JAXA aims to contribute through the aforementioned initiatives to the attainment of the goals related to people’s health and living among others, including Goal 3 (Good health and well-being for people), Goal 6 (Clean water and sanitation), and Goal 11 (Sustainable cities and communities).

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By linking opportunities for participation in JAXA’s initiatives, including the solicitation for new ideas in daily necessities to be used in the ISS, with the THINK SPACE LIFE Platform that provides a forum for the creation and proposal of ideas and for the demonstration of developed prototypes on Earth, JAXA will foster the creation of businesses and the practical use of the developed products and services in society.

Moreover, in line with the launch of the two initiatives, JAXA will disclose the Space Life Story Book, which will help readers to find out solutions and hit upon new ideas in the lifestyle and healthcare fields.

In space, which can be said to be an "ultimate teleworking environment," astronauts are continuing to show high performance by keeping regular hours, maintaining their physical and mental health, and making communications between the crew and with the staff on Earth. The book gives tips to hit upon new ideas in 10 categories based on the inconvenience and issues experienced and devised methods adopted by Japanese astronauts while staying in space. JAXA expects that the information provided in the book will be utilized along with the already disclosed information about the technological gaps to be narrowed for the management of health, which is a precondition for the future implementation of manned exploration missions.