March 27, 2024 (JST)

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)
MIRATUKU

 The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (President: Hiroshi Yamakawa, hereinafter referred to as "JAXA") is pleased to announce that operation of the business co-creation platform "THINK SPACE LIFE" (*1) (hereinafter referred to as “the Platform”), planned and operated heretofore as part of J-SPARC (*2) with the aim of creating a new space-related market in the domains of life and healthcare, will be transferred to the specified non-profit organization MIRATUKU (*3) (Executive Director: Yuya Nishimura).

 In the three years and eight months since its launch in July 2020, THINK SPACE LIFE has been working with more than 230 companies and organizations in the new territory of improving quality of life (QOL) in space through open innovation. Upwards of 95% of these 230-plus companies and organizations are from non-space industries.
 Of the products emerging from development efforts utilizing the technologies and know-how of these non-space companies, 20 products have been or are due to be deployed in space (*4) and 7 products have been newly marketed for ground use. The number of products to be introduced in both space and ground environments will undoubtedly continue climbing.
 An agreement was recently reached with MIRATUKU, an incubation partner since the Platform’s inception, to take over operation of the Platform and utilize the results and know-how generated through co-creation activities between JAXA and its incubation partners to maintain and further develop the Platform’s objectives and activities under private-sector direction.

 MIRATUKU will push forward with the Platform under a new private-sector-led structure (see Figure 1) in collaboration with existing and new incubation partners. In addition to creating products and services based on the challenges and needs of life on manned bases in low Earth orbit (e.g., the International Space Station) as it has been, MIRATUKU will begin pursuing new initiatives designed to facilitate living on the Moon.
 The number of incubation partners will be expanded in future in keeping with the Platform’s progress and projects.

[Supplemental information/reference links]

*1: THINK SPACE LIFE
 A business co-creation platform with incubation functions and a community that aims to conduct R&D and create new businesses to improve life both in space and on the ground by addressing issues of living in space, THINK SPACE LIFE was launched on July 7, 2020 as a means to help commercialize the products forthcoming from the JAXA Space Innovation through Partnership and Co-Creation (J-SPARC) program.
 JAXA collaborates with the Platform’s incubation partners to plan and execute incubation functions and to provide opportunities for a variety of incubation functions. By organically linking the Platform with the solicitation of ideas for products for daily use aboard the ISS, existing joint research and demonstration frameworks, and various space business participation opportunities, JAXA has encouraged the expansion of life and healthcare domains into new markets both in space and on the ground for an era of living in space.
 The THINK SPACE LIFE Platform’s efforts have focused on the health- and housing-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) indicated below (3, 6 and 11) for the purpose of helping achieve these goals through collaboration with participating companies.

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https://aerospacebiz.jaxa.jp/solution/j-sparc/projects/think-space-life/

*2: J-SPARC (JAXA Space Innovation through Partnership and Co-Creation)