MHI's Responsibility to Support Space Development - Today and Tomorrow - and Hopes for the Future (in 2007)

Asada

To begin, I would like to ask what hopes you all have with respect to rocket launching.

Nakasuka

What's most important is for Japan to secure its own rockets that can be launched when wanted and that are virtually immune to failure. I would like to see MHI fulfill a role in securing rockets that will launch with certainty also so that a variety of satellites can be sent up into space. One more thing, I'd like to see technology that would enable launches not just twice a year, but more frequently.

Maemura

With its current facilities, MHI is capable of manufacturing four to five rockets a year. But because there's no demand in Japan to match such numbers, it would be necessary to launch foreign satellites.

Nakasuka

That's where the difficulty lies. There are already a lot of competing rockets on the market overseas, and I have some doubt as to whether or not satellite launching would make it as a business.

Maemura

Rockets account for only 1-2percent of MHI's total sales. Top management through the years has successively touted rockets as the culmination of our technologies and the symbol of a company that thrives on technology, and they have said that maintaining the nation's main rocket is both MHI's responsibility and its pride. But in order for MHI to carry out this duty and simultaneously make it work as a business, a certain number of launches has to be secured.

Nakasuka

What's needed, then, are the "numbers."

Maemura

Yes. In fiscal 2006, for example, we launched four rockets, which is more than usual. A large number of launches inevitably leads to the discovery of anomalies, and that's important.

Asada

It's by finding such anomalies and making the needed improvements on an ongoing basis that rockets are perfected. Technology can't be refined without dealing with rockets in some number. Japan has launched an industrially viable liquid-fuel rocket only 43 times, whereas Russia's Soyuz, which is used as a manned rocket, has been launched as many as 1,600 times. I think it's only after launches in an amount like that that astronauts can ride them with peace of mind.

Nakasuka

The more launches undertaken, the fewer the anomalies. Striving to avoid failure is imperative, but failures are also important in order to ultimately succeed.

Kouchiyama

I'd like to emphasize one more thing, that "launches" aren't the only technology involved with rockets. Launching is only half the story. Launch technology also has to be supported by technologies in rocket manufacture and servicing and in commercializing the rocket industry. The other half of the story, though, is requisite capability in R&D. Going forward, I think Japan's rocket technology has to be elevated from both of these aspects.

Chino

From the perspective of the Japanese people, we want to see successful launches. It's the nature of the newspaper industry that if all launches ahead are successful, gradually they will no longer be newsworthy and articles concerning launches will become increasingly smaller; but if there's even one failure, the news will suddenly be splashed all over the papers. Some may criticize the press for giving huge coverage only in instances of failure, but when a launch fails people become interested in knowing that's going to happen ahead, and that's why a failed launch becomes big news. This is something that needs to be understood.

Nakasuka

What I'd like to see is for the time to come when rocket engineers will say a successful launch is all a matter of course.

Asada

I'd like for such time to come quickly. Today, assiduous efforts are being made. Until now, we've never felt peace of mind regarding a rocket launch until the satellite separated without incident.

Kouchiyama

Inherently, reliability should be taken for granted; it's strange to make a big fuss about it. I too think that we have to work so that launches are completed as a matter of course.

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Kouchiyama

I agree that experiencing failure is important. But what I'd like to see is for MHI to aspire to perfection in manufacturing. I'd also like the company to have the "power of thinking" to support and enable the realization of that aspiration. My personal theory is that to acquire such power of thinking, further R&D - the other half of the story - is indispensable.

Maemura

Roughly 10 years have already passed since the H-IIA rocket was developed, so our young generation of engineers has no experience in development. Development fosters creativity, which in turn leads to the power of thinking. The result of such thinking, in turn, is more thinking, and it's through this cyclical repetition that engineers grow.

Asada

Mr. Maemura and I have been extremely fortunate in having spent a great deal of time involved in the development of the H-I and H-II. While monitoring those rocket launches, we always pursued R&D toward the next step, and that experience enabled us to grow as engineers. For that reason, from now on also I hope, while monitoring launches, to begin R&D into new areas as well, to train young engineers to grow within that process.

Chino

The majority of the Japanese people may think proudly that launching foreign satellites using the H-IIA would demonstrate Japan's technological strength, but what we ultimately hope for is the cultivation of the next generation of engineers and improvement in this nation's rocket technology. From that perspective, I think the next goal should be clearly defined and engineers trained within that R&D process. Where clarity is needed is concerning the transport system envisioned for the future: should it be "reusable" as opposed to today's "single-use" model, or should it be something else?

Kouchiyama

Cultivating engineers who will conceive the next project leads to the next step in R&D. Furthermore, technology developed in this way also leads to enhancement of the H-IIA's reliability.

Nakasuka

Young engineers who come on board later have a poor sense of the wisdom that engineers who were involved from the outset accumulated through their years of experience: notions such as just what is important and the knowledge that doing such-and-such will lead to a failure. Passing on such wisdom, and how that can be done, is of great importance - and is necessary, I think, not only within MHI itself but also to the people working for its partner companies.
To enable continual launches of the H-IIA, cost reductions must be pursued; but at the same time, the question must be addressed as to how to maintain motivation in the people working for partner companies near the same level as they had during the early stages of development. I feel this is an extremely vital task for MHI in view of its need to simultaneously achieve cost reductions and reliability.

Asada

You're absolutely right. We too view maintaining the motivation of our partner companies to be a major issue. Since rockets are systems of large scale, total in-house production is impossible. We therefore integrate items that we have made for us by our many competitors and partner companies, and naturally we have to manage their quality. It's extremely difficult to manage everything completely, however, in cases of subcontracted or sub-subcontracted work.
What we're doing today therefore is to promote "SQRAM: Supply-chain Quality Re-engineering Assessment Managing team," a program devised to strengthen our relationships with our partner companies. As an example, we invite the people who make things for us to come to our factories, where we show them where their company's products are being used. These workers come away with the emotional uplift of seeing how their products are actually being of use, and this, I believe, is boosting their motivation.

Kouchiyama

To achieve cost reductions, it isn't enough just to manage overall costs. We think that JAXA too needs to have the ability to probe down to the detailed cost factors and discuss with manufacturers what can be done to make things cheaper. This is another topic on which we want to work together with MHI, for it is the most important aspect of pursuing cost reductions.

Abe

The foremost objective of MHI's commercial missions is to maintain the reliability and certainty of our launches, but we can't allow ourselves to be lax concerning cost reductions.

Chino

I've long been dubious as to how profitability could be achieved as a privatized business. Unless explanations are offered in response to various doubts - such as why the government would give this much support to the business of a single private enterprise, or to what extent MHI seeks government's support - and transparency is improved, misunderstanding would result.

Asada

Privatization means delegating responsibility for the "operation" of Japan's main rocket. Operation consists primarily of taking charge of everything from coordinating with satellite customers to rocket production and launching. Enhancing main rocket reliability, securing stable launch opportunities and launch infrastructure, etc. are roles that the government should continue to take charge of. What we're saying is please make a clear distinction between the private and public sectors' respective duties; we're not asking for the government's support. Perhaps this isn't being conveyed properly to the general public.
We believe that global competitiveness will be enhanced by having the government shoulder areas that it should shoulder and having MHI strive for its own cost reductions. We're asking for these functions to be carried out in ways that are transparent.

Kouchiyama

We' re accountable to organizations such as the Space Activities Commission of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, so we at JAXA would also like to see this done.

Abe

Hearing what's just been discussed, I feel we too, as a manufacturer, need to offer the doubting public clear explanations.

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Maemura

JAXA's long-term vision is to reach the moon's surface. The goal is to send up an unmanned spacecraft by around 2017, and then to set up a base on the moon. The ultimate aim is to develop a transport vehicle for shuttling back and forth between the Earth and the moon. MHI thinks it too could participate in a dream of a project like this, and we will soon make our own proposal of vision for a lunar exploration.

Kouchiyama

Whether going to the moon or exploring other stars, the obstacle is not having a good means of space transportation. To resolve this problem, we want to move forward, a little at a time, while cooperating with everyone. The H-IIA is the base, the starting point.

Chino

I've been repor t ing on space development for more than 15 years, and my impression is that the vision for space development you are all taking about today differs little from that of 15 years ago. If your vision is ambiguous, it won't be able to receive the people's support, and while I think it's important to hoist a vision, I feel that yours would appeal little to their hearts and minds.

Nakasuka

The moon is well and good, but I think that what has to be done now most is to look at the Earth - how space development can contribute to protecting the Earth's environment, how it can contribute to the Earth's sustainability. Don't you think these things need to be given more serious consideration?
Japan possesses extremely sophisticated environmental protection technologies. It may not get to the moon, but I think Japan would do better putting forth a vision as to how it might function as "guardian" of the environment.

Asada

Doing so would make Japan a country respected by the world.

Nakasuka

This, I think, is what a company like MHI should do: gather environmental data using the satellites it launches by its rockets, apply that data to environmentrelated business here on the Earth, and form a link between outer space and the Earth. Integrating all of these things isn't something than can be done by just any company.

Abe

So what you're suggesting is for MHI to link its environmental business and space development. As you say, it is only a company like MHI that's capable of this. Hearing this suggestion of yours makes me happy; yet it also makes me humble, realizing once more the size of the role MHI can play for the sake of the Earth's community and all humankind.

Asada

I hope to take the valuable opinions you have offered today and apply them to our space development business, including the H-IIA rocket, and to the various business operations we are developing here on Earth, so that MHI will become a company that can make further contributions to society. Thank you all very much.