“The engineer who single-handedly created a lunar rover and was selected for a NASA project” Shinichiro Nakajima, Daimon Co.Part2
●About the “八起/YAOKI” lunar rover
Miki: In the second half, I would like to talk a lot about the lunar rover that is now in front of us.
Nakajima:This is the lunar rover that I developed this year.
Miki: It’s wonderful. What’s the name of it?
Nakajima: My name is Yaoqi. It was named “Yaoki/八起”, which means “七転び八起き”(ups and downs in life). It has only two wheels and one stabilizer, which is used as a peg to ground the third wheel. Even when it tilts, the wheel is round, so it will roll back up. Even if it tips over, it will get up in the opposite direction. That’s how it started.
Miki: May I ask you to move it a little?
Nakajima: Normal forward motion, then turning, then forward. One feature is that it turns over and always backs up in the forward direction.
Miki: So the camera can be clicked up and down at that time?
Nakajima: I’m pretty sure that’s how the camera software works. I haven’t tested it yet, though.
Miki: What led to this development?
Nakajima: The first lunar exploration project that Mr. Miki introduced to me was eight years ago (2011). It was a prize race with Google XPRIXZE, but it expired in March last year (2018).
Utsunomiya:But it was a four-wheeled vehicle that I raced.
Nakajima:Yes. It was a two-wheeled vehicle until the middle of the prototype, but anyway, the team finished the project in March last year, so I decided to start working on my own in April last year.
Miki: Are you going to apply for a patent for this system itself?
Nakajima: We are thinking of getting three or four patents. I can’t say right now that I’m going to apply for a patent, but I will do so in January, and then I’ll be able to say so. By the way, it’s hard to call it a lunar rover, so we call it a lunar robot. I think this is also in the category of robots. But generally speaking, the lunar rover and the lander are developed as one set.
Utsunomiya:Is there a landing gear?
Nakajima:Yes, we do. I didn’t bring it with me today, but I’ve already made a prototype of it.
Utsunomiya:Does it have a name?
Nakajima:It’s called “七転/Shichiten”. We call it “七転八起/Shichiten Yaoki”. Isn’t “七転/Nanakorobi” a little too hard to say?
Miki: “七転八起/Shichiten hachioki”.
Utsunomiya:Why don’t you go to NASA or something?
Nakashima: I’ve been thinking about it a little bit, and to make it easier for English-speaking people, we call it “七転八起/shichitenYAOKI”. This is “八起/YAOKI”, the lunar rover.
We don’t need four wheels for this. We know the conditions on the Moon, so as long as it runs, we think two wheels are fine. The cost of launching a vehicle to the Moon is about 100 million yen per kilogram, so we wanted to make it as cheap as possible. So we wanted to make it as cheap as possible, and as light as possible. To do that, we need to make it as small as possible, and that’s why we’re developing this system. This is a scale-model, a one-thousandth scale model itself.
Utsunomiya: So you can do exploration?
Nakajima: Yes. Since this is an exploration system, we decided that as long as it has a camera, can move on wheels, and can communicate, it doesn’t need anything else.
Utsunomiya:Then there’s the power supply. It’s electric, right?
Nakajima: It’s electric, and it has a solar panel here. The solar panel is attached here because the moon is supposed to be exposed to sunlight at such an angle.
Utsunomiya:It doesn’t need that much power, does it? It consumes enough power to run on…
Nakajima:If we consider the power needed for communication, the solar panels won’t be enough, so we said we’d need a set of landers to relay the power…
Miki: Will the lander have power?
Nakajima: We’ll put a lot of solar panels on the lander, and when the batteries run out, we’ll recharge them on the lander and go out again. This (YAOKI) is about 15cm x 15cm, so it’s very small. However, since rockets are basically cylindrical in shape, we’ve made it compact so that it can be packaged in a cylindrical size, so that it is small no matter where you look at it, and that it doesn’t have a projection that extends no matter where you project it.
Even some of the lightest ones use four wheels, and this is how different they are.
Miki: They are totally different.
Utsunomiya:Are the functions the same?
Nakajima:The functions are the same. In short, we don’t pick up stones or bring them back, so we just shoot and explore.
Miki: Then this is much better.
Utsunomiya:What about a single wheel?
Nakajima:I’ve thought about one wheel, but I think it’s worth a try. one wheel looks like one wheel, but the system to drive it is a bit difficult.
Miki: Why don’t we propose this to American investors and take it to SpaceX?
Nakajima: We’re almost there. First of all, we need to patent it.
Miki: How much does it weigh when set up?
Nakajima: It weighs less than 10kg. I’m aiming for 5kg if all goes well.
Miki: So you’re going to launch 1 billion yen to 1.2 billion yen?
Nakajima:Originally they said it would cost more than 10 billion yen, but by simple calculation, even if it weighs 10 kg, it will only cost 1 billion yen.
Utsunomiya: Are these ordinary materials? What about resin materials?
Nakashima: For now, we are using ordinary materials, but eventually we will use carbon for the chassis and heat-resistant resin for the wheels. However, heat-resistant resin is also available, and 3D printers can be used to make heat-resistant resin.
Utsunomiya:So you already have such filament?
Nakajima:Yes, at industrial technology centers such as PIO, such filaments are available. Now I’m buying a cheap 3D printer to make prototypes of my own.
Miki: Are you actually running it on rough roads or in desert-like areas?
Nakajima: We’re just getting started. The concept was conceived in April, the actual design was done in August, the prototype was made in September and October, and we exhibited it in November.
Utsunomiya:It’s just the beginning.
Nakajima:I’m going to break it down, improve it, experiment with it, break it down and improve it, and find the weak points…
Utsunomiya:Miki-san broke it too…
Nakashima: It was my destiny to break things, so Mr. Miki did what I would have done. However, I am a professional designer, so I was very particular about the strength of the design, and I improved it about 40 times until this point. As an example, the square box shape is the shape of a normal chassis, but the red areas are the weak points. The red area is where the weak point is. By making it a little rounder and more dumbbell-like than the normal one, we can increase the strength by 9%. The curved shape is stronger than the flat shape. However, if you look at the weakest part, you can see that it is a little uneven, so we continued to improve it by adding more flesh to the weak parts, until finally the red color is almost gone, which is 1.5 times stronger than the conventional one.
Utsunomiya: There are electronic devices that go inside, aren’t there? Do you use commercially available products?
Nakajima: We use commercially available products. We also have a patentable version of the device inside.
Miki: Do you have any plans to protect against radiation?
Nakajima: Basically, it’s the material. Radiation is unavoidable, so we have to think about heat resistance first. This is the minimum ground contact point because it has three points. As for the temperature, the lunar surface is over 150 degrees Celsius in the daytime and under -150 degrees Celsius at night, so we want to reduce the outflow of heat from the surface.
Miki: I see. You’ve put a lot of thought into this.
Nakajima: We made it stronger, but in terms of performance, the body is dumbbell-shaped, flat in the middle and bulging on both sides, which allows for increased capacity. It’s inflated because it maximizes the space inside the wheels. The rest of the space between the wheels is flattened as much as possible to increase the minimum ground clearance. It simply determines the spec size of the camera, so we make it the smallest thickness that can package the size of the camera. Another characteristic of the Glauser is that the jagged edges of the sandpaper are slightly rounded, and the fact that the round object hits the ground at a point means that there is less ground contact area, which means less running resistance and less energy loss. However, there is a risk of sinking when the points hit each other. With normal tires, even if they sink, the width and surface pressure remain the same, so once they sink, there is a risk that they will keep sinking. With this tire, when it sinks, the contact area expands horizontally. This tire is rounder and wider than a normal tire.
Miki: Is this shape also patentable?
Nakajima:I don’t think it’s patentable. It’s a wheel that has both low loss and low sinkage.
Miki: Did you use the same kind of wheel for the previous project (HAKUTO)? Were they designed by you?
Nakajima: It was my design. It was rejected in the end, so I wanted to do it again. Also, when you look at the whole thing, it’s like an oval rugby ball, so even if you fall, you can just roll back up.
Utsunomiya:You mean you won’t get stuck?
Nakajima:Yes. Since we will be operating remotely on the Moon, we don’t know what might happen. You might fall into a hole or get stuck in a ditch. We had to anticipate that it might fall over, so we made it easy for it to come back. The other feature is that it turns over and runs backwards. This is also remote-controlled, so it is much better to have a camera in front of you, since you can look at the camera and rely on that information to operate. This was the YAOKI.
●About the “七転/shichiten” lunar lander
Nakajima:Next, the“七転/shichiten”landing gear. This was another design that changed the conventional concept by 180 degrees.
Conventional landers have retractable legs or protruding legs, but in the case of the retractable type, the legs have to come out first, and then the landing has to be done with a reverse thrust to control the position so that it doesn’t fall down gently, and after landing, the rover has to come out, so the catapult has to be opened to form a slope, and the rover has to come out through the slope.
Utsunomiya: Does it feel like it sticks?
Nakajima:It sticks, but the bottom of the parasol is round, so it doesn’t get stuck. What happens next is that it rolls according to the laws of physics. It doesn’t even need legs. Legs are originally put on to prevent the robot from falling, but this one just needs to be able to roll.
Miki: So there’s no need for control. Will the jet be released when we get close to the moon?
Nakajima: Free fall is a little too fast, so we’ll use a reverse thrust to reduce the impact of free fall. We don’t need that kind of control, and as long as we physically reverse thrust to reduce the acceleration, even if we fall with a thud…
Miki: Like a bon-bon-bon?
Nakajima: More like a bon. It’s easy because the final result should be like this.
Miki: The umbrella part of the structure feels like it’s cushioned?
Nakajima: Yes, it does. However, the temperature difference on the Moon is between 180°C and -180°C, so basically I don’t think we should expect elasticity to be effective. -If the temperature is above 100 degrees Celsius, any object will become hard and stiff, and if you try to use elasticity, there is a risk of it cracking.
Miki: Is there a solar panel on the umbrella?
Nakajima: That’s right. The solar panels are affixed to the parasol, so as long as they face the sun, the entire panel can generate electricity. Normally, there are solar panels on the main body, but if it’s a square cube, for example, you can’t use three sides, only one. With this, you can use the entire surface. The sun also moves, so when that happens, we use this (YAOKI) to push the seventh rotation a little. That way, it rolls in the direction of the sun.
Miki: Gu-Gu-Gu it. That’s good.
Nakajima: Isn’t it nice? I think it’s good because it’s something that at least no one thinks about that. This is the seventh turn. A lunar robot is a set of shichiten and YAOKI.
Utsunomiya:Since it’s compact, the rocket doesn’t have to be so big, right?
Nakajima:I’m thinking of using a small rocket, so a pencil rocket or a “Horiemon rocket” would be fine.
●A lunar robot that looks like a lunar alien and development that everyone can do together
Miki: Was this project adopted by ANA’s Startup Seed Program?
Nakajima: I think it might have been accepted. That’s about it.
Miki: But they’re considering it?
Nakajima:Yes. One of the definitions of life is the boundary between the self and the outside world, the existence of a shell, the metabolism of energy and matter, the acquisition of energy and movement, self-reproduction and homeostasis, the ability to reproduce itself and stay for a long time. From that perspective, I call this Hachiki a lunar robot. It has a boundary between itself and the outside world, a shell. The energy and material metabolism, if it can be supplied by solar panels, is round. Next is self-replication and homeostasis, which we don’t have. For example, if you have a rover and a 3D printer on the moon, and you attach AI to it, it will be able to fix any broken parts, and you can basically land multiple rovers on the moon, as if you were creating a society of lunar rovers.
Miki: A network.
Nakashima: For example, it’s hard to tell if you yourself break down, but if a neighboring rover takes a picture and says, “Hey, the right wheel’s broken,” or “Oh, I see…,” you can use a 3D printer to make a slightly improved version and replace it.
Miki: We could drop not just one, but four or so, and expand the search area while fixing each other up on our own. That way, we wouldn’t have to spend a lot of money to search, but we could spread out a number of planes and fix everything while fixing each other…
Nakajima: We could increase the number of planes.
Miki: It’s like we’re eliminating more and more unknown areas. It’s like discovering an alien base.
Nakajima: The reason I call it a lunar robot instead of a lunar rover is that I think it could eventually become a life form, or even a lunar alien.
Miki: Then let’s get an investment of 10 billion from SpaceX.
Nakajima:So I’ve decided to arrive at the moon.
Mr. Maezawa said “go to,” but it would be a shame to go to the moon’s orbit and then return home, so since we are going so close, let’s land. This is a structure that can be physically thrown to the ground, and the rest can be done on its own with a little reverse thrust.
Miki: I’m sure SpaceX will invest in this project. I think SpaceX will invest in it. They’ll make a lot of small ones, scatter them around, and create a map of the area automatically.
Nakajima: I’d like to change the way development is done.
Miki: It is truly micro manufacturing. Micro space exploration.
Nakajima: I can actually buy a 3D printer and design it by myself, so I can make things.
Miki: Once all the patents are cleared, I’d like to publish the blueprints and let everyone make their own.
Nakajima: That’s right. My image is that everyone will be able to make it open and improve it.
Miki: An open platform, that’s great. I’d like to create a business model that makes money by operating the platform, and then everyone can improve it.
Utsunomiya: It’s like having your own alter ego on the moon.
Nakashima: That’s right. I was thinking about that, too. When you analyze the strength and reduce waste, it somehow becomes less organic and linear. If you round it up, it becomes more like an animal, so you could say it’s really an animal if you round it up.
Miki: Let’s write a business plan in English. Let’s write a business plan and present it to SpaceX in English.
Nakajima:Until now, the concept has been for experts to close down the laboratory and say, “Come on, everyone,” but in reality, they do it themselves.
●The lunar robot at the exhibition
Nakajima: I exhibited this at an exhibition in Fukushima. I set up a sandbox and put it there and said, “Everyone is welcome to move it around as they please. If it was expensive, we would have had to put a sign saying “Please don’t touch it,” but that would have been boring.
Utsunomiya: So it was safe even if it broke?
Nakajima: It was fine, and we actually had people break it.
Miki: That’s where the endurance test was done (laughs).
Nakajima: I knew what the weakest part was, so I wanted to make sure it was broken.
Miki: That’s why you had the kids use it, to check it out.
Nakajima: Children do break things. This is the display of the lunar exploration robot. I thought it would be better if we left out all the signs saying our technology and just showed the lunar robot logo so that people could touch the thing. We used a pitch-black background, and this is a scene of running in a sandbox. Naturally, there is no scent of business from the very beginning of the exhibition.
Miki: But I can see great business potential in this.
Nakajima: There may be, but I can’t imagine it. By the way, this was my first time at an exhibition.
Miki: If you have a good nose, you can turn this into a business plan right away.
Nakajima: What I didn’t expect was that the booth was very popular with young people, who came in droves. There are many difficult booths around, but anyone can try this booth without any explanation.
Utsunomiya: It’s just like a game, isn’t it?
Nakajima:Yes. Children are ten times better than adults at this game. In particular, after the object is turned over, the operation is reversed, but children can do it without thinking. Many of the adults couldn’t handle it when it was overturned. Children are very flexible.
●About Avatar X and the Lunar Module Test Facility
Nakajima:I joined Avatar X (https://avatarx.com/) and became a member.
Utsunomiya:What is Avatar X?
Nakajima:Avatar X is a project by ANA and JAXA to create a space-like business in collaboration with companies that want to enter the space-related business. Avatars are human alter egos, and one of ANA’s interests for the future is that, although we are currently successful in the airline business, there will come a time in the future when we won’t need to move around at all. If we can have an experience as if we were traveling without moving, we won’t need airplanes anymore.
Utsunomiya: This is also remote control, isn’t it? You mean you can control it from the Earth?
Nakajima:Basically, it’s remote control, and on the ground, we’re doing remote control from Tokyo to Oita.
Miki: So people on the ground who want to travel can use this…
Nakashima: Eventually, we’ll go to the moon and Mars in 2020, and I’m promoting this as our final target.
Miki: I think this video will be a good promotion.
Nakajima: A plan to build a simulated lunar test site in Oita has already been adopted, and I went to visit the site about two weeks ago. I drove a lunar rover on the quarry site.
Utsunomiya: On the site of a quarry?
Nakajima:Yes. So this is practically the Avatar X project, and now that it’s running, there’s no reason not to take it for a spin.
Utsunomiya:The more things you have, the stronger you are.
Nakashima: Once we got it running, everyone started asking what it was, and the place became like an information center.
●Mr. Nakajima’s thoughts on “the future of XX in Japan”.
Miki: You can put in the “XX” yourself, like “the future of XX in Japan” for Mr. Nakajima.
Nakajima:Yes, you may. In my case, it is technological development. I believe that I should be the one who dares to do everything on my own, without the help of others, including electronics, communications, cameras, wireless, chassis, electric motors, all made by myself or procured and assembled by others. In manufacturing, the next moment there is sectionalism, who does the housing, who does the electricity, and in that moment there is waste, and there is a boundary dispute, or a sense of responsibility. Is it my responsibility or the other person’s? It is instinctive to fight for the distance.
Utsunomiya: Mechanical, electrical, and software.
Nakajima:Yes. In fact, we do separate sessions at ispace (HAKUTO), but if I don’t know whether I can do something or not, I have to say “I can’t do it. If I can make a product by myself, I don’t have to quarrel with myself, so I can convince myself, and I can design to the very last detail. In fact, I started this project with the concept that I wanted to make the camera about 10cm smaller, but I had to be realistic and understand the physical limitations. For example, the moment I decided on the size of the camera, I thought it would be a little 20mm up. I can do that much in my own mind.
Utsunomiya: If it was a different section, you would have to go through your supervisor or have a meeting. Is it possible for someone who has been designing mechanical systems to work on electrical or software systems?
Nakajima: I’m learning now. In terms of the chassis side, we can do 3D design with Fusion360, which is a free public CAD system, and 3D printers cost 70,000 yen, so we can do this side with an investment of 70,000 to 80,000 yen. Also, for electronic control, for example, there’s the Raspberry Pi, and I’m studying Arduino, which is very cheap and very powerful. It’s very cheap and very powerful. It’s designed so that even amateurs can program it easily, and the kits are really cheap. It comes with an infrared camera, a motor, a buzzer, a base, and everything for only 3,000 yen.
Utsunomiya: The future of technological development is becoming less and less difficult, and there is no reason why it can’t be done.
Nakajima:All that’s left is the effort to learn…
Miki:Passion.
Utsunomiya:The other thing is what you want to make. I hope that zenschool can help you with that.
Nakajima:This is the first product I made after taking zenschool.
Utsunomiya: That’s amazing.
Miki: It’s wonderful to see something like this from zenschool.
Nakajima:It took more than a year, but we talked about the Hyakunin Isshu at zenschool.
Utsunomiya:That’s my life’s work.
Miki:Why don’t you draw on the moon? With this (Yagi). You could program it to draw on the sand.
Utsunomiya:A hundred poems on the moon.
Nakashima: That’s right. As Utsunomiya-san said, the last thing you need is a sense of urgency about what you want to create, or a sense of impatience that you have to do something, although it is difficult to express in Japanese. In fact, I designed this in August, and in July and August, I had this kind of brain explosion.
Utsunomiya: Was it around the end of the follow-up?
Nakajima: It was a little while after the follow-up.
Miki: Brain explosion (laughs).
Nakashima: In English it’s rage, which translates to “intense anger,” but it’s not just negative anger, it’s more like an image of an explosion, like art is an explosion. I think it was thanks to zenschool.
Miki: Thank you very much. You said that you are going to develop technology by yourself.
Utsunomiya: There was a one-man home appliance manufacturer a few years ago, but now there is a one-man lunar and one-man space development.
Miki: Thank you very much for your valuable talk today.
Nakajima: Thank you very much.
●After the conversation, he was hired for a venture lunar exploration project commissioned by NASA.
After this conversation, in the year 2020, Mr. Nakajima’s project was selected as a project for a venture contracted by NASA, and we were able to officially sign the contract. It’s a little hard to believe, but I would like to share the following link with you.
