With the space race heating up, Japan has recently revealed its intention to build an artificial space habitat and an inter-planetary train system connecting the Earth, Moon, and Mars. Researchers from the country’s Kyoto University, in collaboration with Kajima Construction, announced the futuristic plans last week at a press conference.
Researchers have proposed an interplanetary transportation system called ‘Hexatrack’ to connect the Earth, Moon, and Mars. The connecting system will maintain a gravity of 1G during long-distance travel, reducing the impact of prolonged exposure to low gravity. The Weather Channel reported the hexagon-shaped train capsules called “Hexacapsules” with a moving device at the center.
Interplanetary Trains
A mini-capsule with a radius of 15 meters will connect the Earth and the Moon, while a larger capsule with a 30-meter-radius will connect the Moon and Mars. The stations on the Moon, Mars, and Earth will be called Lunar Station, Mars Station, and Terra Station respectively. The Earth Station will be a successor to the International Space Station (ISS).
The Japanese researchers aim to build a glass structure, called ‘The Glass’, which will be a living structure with artificial gravity and recreation of the facilities on Earth in order to prevent the “weakening” of the human musculoskeletal system in zero and low gravity environments. The one on the Moon will be called the “Lunaglass,” while the habitat on Mars will be called the “Marsglass.”
During the news conference, the Director of the SIC Human Spaceology Center of Kyoto University, Yosuke Yamashiki said “There is no plan like this in other countries’ space development plans.” “Our plan represents important technologies crucial to ensuring human beings will be able to move to space in the future,” he added.
A simplified version of interplanetary trains could be completed by 2050, while a full-scale version might take a century to be a reality, according to Japan’s The Asahi Shimbun
