Forget NASA and Elon Musk, now Japan will take you to Moon and Mars on a Bullet Train

tech.hindustantimes.com:

While NASA and private players like Elon Musk led SpaceX are still figuring out the right way to take the first manned mission to Mars, Japan appears to be way ahead of the curve. The country which gave the world the fastest trains in the form of Bullet trains, is now planning something similarly outrageous. According to reports, Japan is planning to build space Bullet trains that will take people to the Moon and Mars. And what will people do once they are there? Live, of course. Japan is also working on livable habitats complete with oxygen, gravity zones and more. Read on to know more.

According to a report by The Weather Channel, Japan is planning to build an artificial space environment on Mars with an atmosphere similar to the Earth for humans where they will be able to live and that too without harming the local atmosphere there.

Researchers from Japan's Kyoto University in partnership with Kajima Construction are working on this project to take space travel to another level. A transportation system called ‘Hexagon Space Track System' for an interplanetary bullet train is also in the works. This is a completely different route than what Elon Musk or NASA are planning. If a space train indeed becomes feasible, the economics of space travel could be reduced phenomenally.

Yosuke Yamashiki, director of the SIC Human Spaceology Center of Kyoto University said at a news conference at the university on July 5, “There is no plan like this in other countries' space development plans. “Our plan represents important technologies crucial to ensuring human beings will be able to move to space in the future.”

While Takuya Ono, a project associate professor with the Center and a senior researcher at Kajima, a major general