Aug 02 (Nikkei) - Like something out of a science-fiction movie, a mysterious, strangely shaped structure rises up from a barren red desert. Inside, buildings stand on tracts of green, grassy land and boats sail across vivid blue water -- all on near-vertical walls.
This computer-animated tableau was presented at the opening of Kyoto University's Human Spaceology Center as a potential vision for living on Mars.
The center was established amid a wave of renewed interest in space travel, with projects like NASA's Artemis program aspiring to send the U.S.'s first crewed flight to the moon since the Apollo missions, and the recent flights by Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic and Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin. SpaceX, led by Elon Musk, aims to send people to Mars within the next decade.
The Kyoto University center, which was set up in October and launched fully in June, plans to help Japan contribute to the development of technologies needed for humans to venture and live far from Earth. The center is partnering with the private sector.
The video of the strange structure was a concept for one of the center's five main areas of research: habitations with earthlike artificial gravity, a challenge it is working on with general contractor Kajima.
The low gravity of the moon and Mars -- one-sixth and one-third that of Earth, respectively -- makes it harder to maintain and build muscle and bone mass. The center will pursue a variety of ideas for addressing this problem to keep space travelers healthy.
The center's research topics also include the use of wood in space, the effects of radiation, space education, and technology for space and earth exploration.
