Potential Japanese manned flight to Mars

[VDD1991]

In the final minutes of the last episode of Digimon Adventure 02, titled A Million Points of Light, Matt becomes the first astronaut to set foot on Mars, accompanying Gabumon with him. However, Japan at this point has yet to launch its own manned spacecraft for taking people to the Moon or Mars, and if it were to send people to Mars, it would need to build a greatly enlarged version of the H-IIA/B or planned H-III that stands 290 feet tall and lofts a spacecraft complex composed of a spacecraft based on the canceled Fuji spacecraft and a Mars landers similar to the Grumman lunar lander.

[Eer]

Maybe they'll be in the market for a jazzy import ...

[VDD1991]

Maybe they'll be in the market for a jazzy import ...

They could borrow technology from the Space Launch System and use it in a proposal for a 290- or 325-foot tall Japanese Mars rocket based on the planned H-III. If the Digidestined Yolei Inoue were a real person and volunteered to fly in a manned space capsule lofted by a H-III derivative for interplanetary space flight, she would be among the first Japanese women in space.

[Pipcard]

Since we're talking about pop culture references here: scamn Future Media, creators of the virtual singer Hatsune Miku, announced in an April Fool's joke that they were going to build a theme park on Mars by 2039 (3 = mi, 9 = ku). There's an orange retro-looking rocket that looks like a BFR/Starship. I have dubbed it "Mikumaru" (未来丸) as "Miku" or "Mirai" means "future."

https://twitter.com/cfm_miku_en/status/848005446497476608

In the 1990s, there were plans to have an 18-meter-wide hydrolox SSTO called the Kankoh-maru, which was to be shaped like a giant capsule (like the Chrysler SERV proposal for the Space Shuttle) and hold 50 tourists. Imagine that, but methalox, and as part of a two-stage vehicle.

Unfortunately, there's that whole economic stagnation going on.