A KDDI building in Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo
13:39 JST, May 31, 2024
Tokyo, May 30 (Jiji Press) – Major Japanese telecommunications company KDDI Corp. said Thursday it has launched an open innovation program designed to create space-related businesses through collaboration between startups and major companies.
The Mugenlabo Universe program will provide experimental environments, including a digital space that mimics conditions in space, to help partner companies develop new technologies and launch space companies.
The program will collaborate with Spacedata Inc., a Tokyo-based space development research firm, and others. They will first work on a test in fiscal year 2025 of the operation of robots in a digital space that reproduces the temperature and gravity of the moon’s surface. A food cultivation test using an unmanned small satellite in a space environment is expected to start in fiscal year 2027.
KDDI also said it aims to establish a communications network between the moon and Earth as early as 2028 and develop a communications environment on the moon by around 2030.
