Japan planning to launch up to 100 mini-satellites

New outlet of wasting money, from inland-roads to outer-space. Good luck.

Naw japan just wants to circle it's trajectory over NK to show force.

More money towards domestic surveillance.

hopefully the surveillance will be used for good purposes as saving lives and crime prevention rather than traversities, crimes and abuses.

Surely this is just an excuse to test missile technology! I hope the satelites will not invade N korean airspace.

More"space junk"

wow, lots of money with no real purpose at all. And a walking robot on the moon too? what a joke.

c'mon... fix up your healthcare so the satellites are not just marking all the inbound ambulances denied access to hospitals due to lack of services. Seriously someone please re-translate 'irony' into Japanese because I think there was a mistake somewhere...

Japan is planning to launch a swarm of up to 100 mini-satellites, each about the size of a school backpack,

LOL, I hope they remember to disconnect the kid from the backpack before launching it into orbit!

Not a new idea. Under the Reagan administration it was called "Brilliant Pebbles". It is more cost effrective to launch a lot of small birds into low earth orbit and let them decay in a decade or so and then replace them. No space junk because they burn up on re-entry.

"In January, Japan used one of its rockets to launch the first satellite to monitor greenhouse gases worldwide."

According to UnagiDon, then, Japan will be firing a whole lot of missiles for this... ah, wait... the launch vehicles will undoubtedly be called 'rockets' this time around.

Anyway, I suppose a little boost for the space program is a good thing, but isn't anyone worried about the amount of space junk this creates in low orbit?

Time for UN sanctions on Japan.

Is this a “satellite” launch in the North Korean sense of the word?

This is what I call contaminating the space with useless junk.

How about giving the people out of work some money

Peeping big brother from space. Make sure your shades are drawn before you take a shower. Pretty much a boneheaded idea.

I think they are not needed to analyze farming trends. JA already has plenty of data on farming trends. Likewise, they are not needed to watch for traffic jams as virtually every road in Japan has real time traffic monitoring now with all those overhead "car counters" that stream data on the number of vehicles, the distance between vehicles, and the speed of vehicles. There are rooms full of police that monitor the data and video feeds and the computers automatically adjust the traffic light timing depending on traffic levels.

"Is this a “satellite” launch in the North Korean sense of the word?"

Naw, the Japanese have actually succeeded in keeping their satellites in orbit as opposed to NK who chucks rocks in a parabola to the Pacific....

Kwaabish: "Naw, the Japanese have actually succeeded in keeping their satellites in orbit as opposed to NK who chucks rocks in a parabola to the Pacific...."

And yet oddly enough the NK government holds all the cards in talks between the two! :)

Anyway, waste of money, I say.

And yet oddly enough the NK government holds all the cards in talks >between the two! :)

Only in some people's wishful dreams.

North Koreans will probably see them at night reflecting in low orbit and completely freak

Japan should send those mini satellites into geo stationary orbit above Pyongyang to and to reflect or emit light to spell out "Kim Jong Il sucks balls!" in the night sky.

Oh, and continuously beaming in the "Naval March" ("Gunkan March" as played in many Pachinko parlours in the old days)or Kimigayo in an endless loop to NK radio stations may be an added plus.

naw, that would give them too much attention. I'm content that they see the world pass them by enough already, sitting there watching all the junk fly by, and will do so 100x more with a freeway of night lights not paying them attention either.

If you haven't already, take a look at a NASA image of the night's sky in Asia. Japan is lit up like a christmas tree and the border of SK is obvious. What's scary is that at night beyond Pyongyang, NK has no lights at all. None.