(Viewed 2,300 times)

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Japan dreams of robot moon base in 2025

Japan wants to help build a lunar base and populate it with advanced versions of today's humanoid robots by around 2025, according to the head of the nation's space agency.

The idea is more than a pipe-dream; it is part of a 20-year plan, called JAXA Vision 2025, that was drawn up by Keiji Tachikawa, a former president of Japan's largest mobile operator NTT DoCoMo, who is now president of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

As part of the plan, Japan would use advanced robotic technologies to help build the moon base, while redeveloped versions of today's humanoid robots, such as Honda Motor Co. Ltd.'s Asimo and Sonys Qrio, could work in the moon's inhospitable environment in place of astronauts, he said in a recent interview.

Japan's lunar robots would do work such as building telescopes and prospecting and mining for minerals, Tachikawa said.

"I see a big role for Japan's robotics technologies on the moon," he said. "Japanese robots will be one of our big contributions. If there is work where robots can replace humans, they will."

Tachikawa's plan follows a January 2004 decision by U.S. President George W. Bush that the U.S., with the assistance of partners including Japan, should build a lunar base by about 2020 and use it as a staging point for the human exploration of Mars.

Japan's space program was established in 1969, a few months after the American astronaut Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. In the late 1990s, a leading Japanese think tank proposed that Japan launch over 100 rockets carrying robots and materials to help establish a Japanese outpost by 2020.

More here: www.pcworld.idg.com.au/index.php/id%3B863998707%3Bfp%3B2%3Bfpid%3B1

-------------

I wonder if the Moon will be an international zone, much like the Antartic is now?

[Centaur]

"I wonder if the Moon will be an international zone, much like the Antartic is now?"

It already is by international agreement. Even if it weren't, who would be able to enforce claims to territory?

[Maddad]

Not so much an international zone as a no national zone. By treaty nations are prohibited from owing real estate outside of Earth. The idea is that it will prevent humanity from exporting wars if we don't have national interests in space to protect. Individuals or corporations though have no such restriction. There's an interesting heirachy to evaluating claims of ownership. Basically, the smaller your claim is, and the closer you have been to being there, the stronger you claim is. Someone can claim the entire planet Mars because they've seen it in a telescope, but the guy who claims 40 acres of it trumps the planet-wide claim. Also, the person who surveys the land from a Martian position has a stronger claim than the man who just sees it through his scope. All such claims are valid, but when they conflict then the stronger one prevails and the weaker one gets discarded.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Then if that's the case, it would be quite easy for the Lunar astronauts to lay a "Claim". As they have already walked the back 40 and marked the area. No nation can claim the moon, but an individual can.

That reminds me of the guy who has been selling lunar parcels to the public...with plenty of sales.

I'm waiting for the first "space court" to dispute exo-real estate conflicts...

[Centaur]

Load your six-shooters boys. We'll circle our wagons around Clavius and won't let any of those land grabbers get through. We make the only law out here, not some tenderfoot bureaucrat in Washington.

[Maddad]

admin said:

Then if that's the case, it would be quite easy for the Lunar astronauts to lay a "Claim". As they have already walked the back 40 and marked the area.

Yup. I've thought about that. They do have the best claim, but what good would it do them? They gonna build a summer house there?

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

They can deed it to their heirs when the time comes for colonization.

I wonder where they will find the Tall Black Obelisk ala 2001: Space Odyssey?

[Centaur]

admin said:

Then if that's the case, it would be quite easy for the Lunar astronauts to lay a "Claim". As they have already walked the back 40 and marked the area. No nation can claim the moon, but an individual can.

They were working there as US Federal agents. They did not get there solely through their own efforts, but through the patronage of US taxpayers. Claims could only be made for their employer. The engineers might have a better claim, but even they were working for companies contracted by the government.

Now the legalities could get interesting if the private sector started sending people to the Moon or planets. Either they would have to get governments to accept and enforce their claims, or they would have to be able to defend their land themselves against intruders. My statement three posts above this one implied as much in a joking manner.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Well, the same thing could be said about the frontiers people, who treked out west and claimed land not really theirs. They were able to accomplish this through the efforts of the Union army "clearing" out the undesirables. And I understand that the U.S. government quit claimed lots thousands of miles away from D.C.

So, in a way, they were the astronauts of today...exploring unknown territory, but not as agents of the Feds.

Similiar doctrine could be re-visited when the time comes.

[Maddad]

centaur said:

admin said:

Then if that's the case, it would be quite easy for the Lunar astronauts to lay a "Claim". As they have already walked the back 40 and marked the area. No nation can claim the moon, but an individual can.

They were working there as US Federal agents. They did not get there solely through their own efforts, but through the patronage of US taxpayers. Claims could only be made for their employer. The engineers might have a better claim, but even they were working for companies contracted by the government.

Really? Exactly what lunar court recognizes such a law?

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

I'm sure some kangaroo frontier court will be established, weighed and biased toward the ones with the most money and power. Or offered some rocky area on the far side of the moon as compensation.

Different locale, same modus operendi.

[Centaur]

maddad said:

centaur said:

They were working there as US Federal agents. They did not get there solely through their own efforts, but through the patronage of US taxpayers. Claims could only be made for their employer. The engineers might have a better claim, but even they were working for companies contracted by the government.

Really? Exactly what lunar court recognizes such a law?

Apparently you missed the second paragraph of that post and the implication of the earlier post that was only half in jest. The paragraph you quoted related to terrestrial law and the international agreement that countries cannot claim celestial territory.

[Centaur]

admin said:

I'm sure some kangaroo frontier court will be established, weighed and biased toward the ones with the most money and power. Or offered some rocky area on the far side of the moon as compensation.

Different locale, same modus operendi.

Any court would be moot if it cannot enforce its decisions. A police force would have to be established to carry out the court's orders. That would mean the ability to travel into space with sufficient weaponry to deal with anyone willing to put up a fight to defend his claims. I suspect that any eventual law that realistically applies will be made by those who actually venture forth and not by those remaining on Earth.