Japan’s Commercial Moon Mission, Defense Policy, and its Transformer Lunar Rover SORA-Q

This month the Tokyo-based company ispace plans on delivering three rovers to the lunar surface, including a small but real Transformer. This could be a first for Japan, but perhaps more importantly, if successful, it will also be a first for the commercial space sector, worldwide. Laura Winter speaks with Namrata Goswami about how Japan’s government is shaping policy to specifically develop its space industry and grow its national defense space capabilities, even to perhaps intercept China’s hypersonic glide vehicles. Goswami is an independent scholar on space policy and great power politics, a Faculty Associate at the Thunderbird School of Global Management, Arizona State University, and co-author of the book “Scramble for the Skies”.