On Friday, February 27, 2015, ARC-Space (*1) invited Dr. Paul Abell (*2) from NASA's Johnson Space Center (*3) to give an Open Seminar at the UBIC 3D Theater.

Dr. Abell is currently involved in NASA's planned 2025 manned asteroid exploration mission, which aims to send astronauts to a near-earth asteroid. At the seminar, he spoke about the significance of the mission, and the strategies being used.

This seminar reminded us of the massive scale of the US space program, which is the world's largest. While Japan is proud of its achievements in asteroid exploration with Hayabusa, the participants seemed to make new discoveries through comparison of the space programs of Japan and the United States. One student who attended the seminar said, "the talk was very stimulating."

Dr. Abell participated in the Hayabusa 2 mission launched last December, as part of the NASA team involved in the project. ARC-Space will continue to work closely with Dr. Abell on Hayabusa 2 and other projects.

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Scene from the seminar. The seminar included some striking images (left). Students listening intently to the seminar (right).

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Commemorative photo with a model of Hayabusa 2. Dr. Abell is in the middle.

*1 CAIST ARC-Space
*2 Paul A Abell Bio
*3 NASA Johnson Space Center