Japan’s Current Engagement With Space

Japan’s Current Engagement with Space Name Institution Japan’s Current Engagement with Space Japan is currently considered the world’s third-largest economy but this is based on nominal GDP. While looking at purchasing power parity, Japan slips or falls to the fourth position. During the 2007/2008 recession, Japan was not badly hit as other economies such as the US. However, the country did experience recessionary symptoms which sent a warning to the country’s leaders. On the contrary, the country has continued to perform well economically but considering that it is among the top five largest economies, it is a shock that the country has never been credited with a major development in space exploration. Japan’s space program is under the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency or JAXA which was formed in 2003. However, since its inception, JAXA has managed to spearhead an aggressive space exploration endeavor propelling the country further ahead. Current Engagements One major engagement Japan has instigated in 2018 is increased cooperation with ESA or the European Space Agency. The announcement of this partnership and cooperation was made and confirmed “at the International Space Exploration Forum ISEF2 on 3 March in Tokyo, Japan” CITATION Eur18 \l 1033 (ESA, 2018). As per the article, both parties have had similar visions of exploring the universe especially the moon. “For example, both parties, together with the Canadian Space Agency, are investigating a human lunar demonstrator mission which could pave the way for humans to return to the Moon and return samples from the surface via a Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway.” This partnership does indeed seem poised for greater things. According to JAXA Press Release on May 11, 2018, there was “successful deployment of first Kenyan Satellite, selected as first KiboCUBE programme of UNOOSA and JAXA” CITATION JAX18 \l 1033 (JAXA., 2018). First of all, Kibo is a Japanese experiment module and what many people consider Japan’s first and greatest achievement or addition to the International Space Station (ISS) program. Apparently, the CubeSat was developed by a Kenyan team from the University of Nairobi with the help of the Japanese. 1KUNS-PF (name of the ...