Japan To Enter Space Race In A Fashion That Is

SPACE TRAVEL

Earlier tests revealed that tourists wanting to play golf would need lighter, more agile space suits while driving the lunar links.

Tokyo (AFP) Dec 21, 2005
Japan hopes to become the third nation to produce a space suit, using its technology to design a slimmer outfit for the next US mission to the moon, an official said Wednesday.

Japan will use its computer and fiber knowhow to design gear weighing 20 kilograms (44 pounds), down from the burdensome 120 kilograms (265 pounds) of the current US-made outfit, a space agency official said.

Space suits, which are also made by Russia, must shield humans from massive change in temperature and protect them from nuisances such as meteoric stones.

The agency aims to develop the new space outfit in time for the US manned mission to the Moon due in 2018, the first since 1972.

A special team of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency has launched a feasibility study due to be completed by March.

"We believe that Japan has strong points in terms of technologies related to the development of space suits," the official said.

"We also hope that the development of our own space suit will help us expand our own space activities," he said.

Japan has boosted the budget of its space program but has seen a series of setbacks. Last month a spacecraft failed on its landmark mission to collect samples from an asteroid.

Source: Agence France-Presse

MARSDAILY

Weighing The Benefits Of The I-Suit

Moffett Field CA (SPX) Oct 21, 2005
Dr. Dean Eppler is a geologist at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. For the past eight years, Eppler has participated in field tests of experimental spacesuits as part of the Desert RATS (Research and Technology Studies) project.

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