The Planetary Society of Japan : Column

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YM COLUMN ARCHIVE

May 7, 2008

Start-up of KU-MA is just around the corner

Coming up soon now is the establishment of the new NPO, KU-MA (Kodomo-Children, Uchu-Space, Mirai-Future Association). As would be common with any NPO, we are starting under difficult financial condition but our heart and mind are as clear and bright as looking out for hopeful future. I’ve come to fully realize from my having visited every corner of this country for last several years through “space education tour across the country” that there are quite a number of people reliable enough to share the same vision in order to wipe off, with united efforts, ongoing decadent social situation all over the world. Why not we work together to draw a broad line of vector for the sake of children, space and future?

The members will receive “Weekly KU-MA” in a form of mail magazine news, in which you will have abundant interesting articles such as:

Latest space news of Japan and the world.
This “YM COLUMN” as agreed by The Planetary Society of Japan.
Scientific explanation in details on the news topic of the week.

As the main target of KU-MA is “Children, Space and Future”, we will try to do our best in always cooking fresh ingredients to make the contents of the magazine well digestible for children. We will never serve the used foods like some Japanese restaurant. We will keep them all time fresh and fragrant.

As we are now in the beginning phase with small number of members, we are not able to do any flashy activities, nevertheless there have been brought up many fresh ideas. One of them, for instance, is to compile “encyclopedia of space or space education” through co-operations among members like in the way “Wikipedia” is compiled on Internet by numerous people around the world. By taking advantage of individual’s knowledge and experiences from their careers, we want to send out variety of messages to people of Japan and the world. By using the valuable lessons only obtainable from experiences of ups and downs in one’s lives, we want to compile educational materials useful for boys and girls or even for adults; by so doing I believe we can greatly contribute to society.

Of course, we will do our best efforts to make ourselves co-workable with JAXA’s Space Education Center and also with YAC (Young Astronaut Club-Japan) who are actually carrying out various activities now. Also, we will expedite tie-up with school front sites and local governments. I hope members will leave their impressive traces in any of such activities. Particularly, I hope to be able to produce the common family ground where fathers and mothers are jointly going to achieve something with children in a center of family. I cordially invite you to join us with KU-MA where we attempt to build together the lively stage where we turn out many children flying high in the future with cultivated mind of arts and science originated from their naïve likings for space, nature and creatures.

KU-MA is to start up before long. It’s a kind of slow start though, we are now preparing our website you may be looking forward to.

I welcome your opinions on this column to the following E-mail address.
matogawa@planetary.or.jp

(Translated by The Planetary Society of Japan)