Japan's 20-Year Plan for Space

rwven writes "Japan has just released information on their new space plan which will take them through the year 2025. Included in their plan are robots and nanotechnology for moon surveys as well as an eventual hydrogen powered mach-5 capable plane, a mach-2 capable passenger airliner and a manned mission to the moon. They will consider missions to mars and other planets after 2025. Space.com is also carrying this story."

Comments

Re:Why Repeat Our Mistakes?

[danila]

This is 20th-century thinking. You see, the human history is not an infinite timeline, where nations fight for prestige, where people need to inspire children with flashy projects.

Today we see the future much clearer and it dictates us what is rational to do. It is rational to concentrate on developing the enabling technologies first - nanotech and AI. It doesn't make sense to inspire people with space flight, that time has come and gone. It also makes sense to fight ageing and achieve physical immortality, that's what we should be dreaming about and working on.

Meanwhile the space should not be completely put on hold, but we certainly should not embark on large-scale projects designed primarily to "inspire" and "achieve prestige".

Anyone, who doesn't think so, is uninformed.