latest technology update from japan

  

As Albert Einstein once said, "Failure is success in progress." Now, our next startup is a world leader in using a new method to take people high in the sky. At this space industry exhibition held in Tokyo, one particular vehicle drew visitors' attention. It's a balloon designed to take passengers into the stratosphere. According to its developer, going by balloon is a lot cheaper and less risky than a rocket. The balloon can reach an altitude of more than 25 km. Technically, this is not space, but those along for the ride would be able to feel as though they're flying to the stars far above the planet. The company developing the balloon plans to use it for 4-hour tours ending with ocean landings. It looks like a very feasible and interesting way to see Earth from the sky, almost in space. When the plan was announced last year, five spots, each going for 24 million yen or about $150,000, sold out immediately.

Iwaa Kke, the CEO of Iwaa Incorporated, developed the balloon. Iwaa majored in aerospace engineering at the University. At the time, he used a similar balloon to take pictures from the stratosphere. He later used it to take a tropical fish to an altitude of 25 km. He thought if it's possible to take a fish into the sky, why not people?

Rockets are the only way to take things into space, but they're expensive and require huge amounts of development and manpower. I tried to find another way to see space that would be easier than rockets and decided the best option would be balloons.

Iwaa has a research institute in Hokkaido. Engineers there make balloons out of long sheets of a type of plastic that was chosen after testing more than 200 materials. The balloon's cabin is sealed to maintain air pressure, while oxygen is supplied from a tank. The environment feels just like being on the ground. The cabin must be resistant to 100 tons of force, so it has to be extremely strong.

In early April, Iwaa and his team set out for a test flight. The stratosphere is severe with very thin air and temperatures around minus 50°C. To ensure safety, engineers checked that the balloon's life support system was working properly. The balloon itself can become a parachute in an emergency, and the cabin has three more emergency chutes. They made adjustments through the night until just before departure.

The balloon soared right into the clouds. The pilot ensured that the cabin was sealed tight and activated the life support system. The test was successful, and the pilot enjoyed a spectacular view of the sunrise. The company expects to be able to take passengers to the stratosphere soon. I want everyone to know you can experience space without using a rocket. Our balloon seats only two people, but we're designing a larger cabin so we can take more. The firm says it'll keep experimenting and aim for higher altitudes, with the first Stratosphere tour planned for this summer.

We're now joined by Aoki Hidetaka, who developed Japan's first automated cargo spacecraft. Now he's the director of Spaceport Japan, which promotes the commercial space industry. Thank you for joining us, Haka. 

Thanks for having me here. So, what are the prospects for Japan's space industry, and how big a role can Japan expect to play globally using new technologies such as the balloon we just saw?

 Yeah, so for the last 10 years, more than 100 Japanese space startups have been created in Japan, and more than 150 large companies from different industries have entered the space sector. So I have pretty high expectations for new products and services being created through the collaboration between the startups and large companies. As you know, space requires time and a large amount of capital, so I believe that the key to making a breakthrough in this global competition is to combine the speed and ideas of startups with the large capital and manufacturing capabilities of large companies.

Now, despite these collaborations, Japan's space business still appears to trail those of other countries. What do you think is the problem? Right, so in the space business, you need to look at the global market from the beginning, and if the market is too small, more if you only look at the domestic market. So I believe that Japanese companies should go abroad for sales activities more aggressively in the future. In addition, in the sales process for the space industry, usually, the industry requires you to have a strong track record in space environments. So it's very important to have this track record in the space environment as early as possible, which sometimes could be a challenge for small startup companies.

What can Japan do to catch up? In recent years, the Japanese government has been quite supportive of the space industry, and over the past decade, Japan's space annual budget has more than doubled to 900 billion yen. When it comes to the country ranking, Japan is the third largest in the world after the United States and China. So I believe that we should actively utilize the Japanese government's support to achieve any track record in space and target the global market. The cooperation with the government is very essential in this space industry. So the first step is to achieve the result within the government project, and then the second step will be to succeed in the private sector with private companies. I think this is the formula for success for space companies. .