Development of a Test Environment for Realizing the "Moon/Mars Garden (Hakoniwa) Concept”

The field of computer science and engineering, which is our university's area of ​​expertise, offers broad applicability, fostering thriving education and research across diverse sectors such as AI, semiconductors, robotics, and space-related technologies. The space sector, in particular, represents a major strength of the University of Aizu, a fact evidenced by our long-standing participation in JAXA's Hayabusa project. Furthermore, our Aizu Research Center for Space Information (ARC-Space) has been designated by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) as a Joint Usage/Research Center for Lunar and Planetary Exploration Archive Science under its Joint Usage/Research Center program.

To serve as a proving ground for the space industry, our university has advanced the "Moon/Mars Garden (Hakoniwa) concept". In pursuit of this vision, we have collaborated with relevant organizations to build the necessary test environment; initiatives have included constructing a simulated lunar crater at the Fukushima Robot Test Field and developing systems such as a virtual lunar surface simulator and a remote data communication infrastructure.

In the 2025 fiscal year, we joined a project led by the Ritsumeikan Trust, which had been selected by JAXA for its Lunar Frontier Space Transformation (SX)Project, to install a large-scale testing facility known as the "Hakoniwa Chamber" (link: https://www.ritsumei.ac.jp/sx-hub/project04/aizu/). Preparations are currently underway for its general operation, scheduled to begin in April 2028. With the completion of this testing environment, a key step toward realizing the "Hakoniwa Concept", we held a press conference to announce the development.

We aim to continue contributing to Fukushima's recovery and revitalization in the space sector just as well as we have been driving industrial revitalization and job creation in the robotics sector through industry-academia-government collaboration centered in Minamisoma. We intend to achieve this by leveraging our university's unique research and development strengths to the fullest and supporting industrial development.