Honda’s Surprising Leap Into Reusable Rockets

This June, Honda successfully launched and landed a compact, reusable rocket prototype at its research center located on Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido. While widely recognized as a leading automotive manufacturer, Honda’s portfolio extends far beyond cars, encompassing motorcycles, scooters, electric bicycles, all-terrain vehicles, marine engines, and even private jets. The company’s advanced research division has a storied history of innovation, credited with developing the world’s first in-car navigation system, the first mass-market automatic braking technology, and the inaugural production-level autonomous driving system. Venturing into reusable rocketry to potentially compete with entities like SpaceX represents a bold new frontier, even for a company with such a diverse technological background.

According to Kazuo Sakurahara, a former director of Honda’s Formula One team who now leads the company’s space development strategy, this move is a natural progression. He explains that Honda’s products already serve customers on land, at sea, and in the air, making space the next logical domain for expansion. Sakurahara shared this perspective from Honda’s R&D campus north of Tokyo during his first discussion with American media.

Honda frames its rocket initiative with the broad mission of enhancing daily life for people everywhere. However, the corporation also views rocket technology as strategically vital to its core operations. Sakurahara points out that these launch vehicles could deploy satellites to bolster mobility, energy, and communication networks. Wide-area communication satellites are becoming increasingly critical for the sophisticated connected features in advanced driver-assistance systems and are a foundational element for achieving full autonomy across all forms of transport, from scooters to aircraft.

Industry analyst Sam Abuelsamid, a vice president at Telemetry consulting group, recognizes the clear strategic value. He suggests Honda could leverage such a satellite network for its own global vehicle fleet or offer the service to other automakers. Abuelsamid also highlights a potential desire to avoid reliance on a near-monopoly like SpaceX, particularly given the perceived unpredictability of its leader, Elon Musk.

Considering shifting global political alliances and regional security concerns involving nations like China and North Korea, Abuelsamid identifies additional motivations for Honda’s space ambitions. He notes that these technologies could offer defensive capabilities, and Japan may wish to reduce its dependence on the United States in this critical area.

The reusable rocket is merely the most visible component of Honda’s broader vision for the solar system. After more than three decades developing fuel cell technology, despite limited commercial success in automobiles, the company is pivoting this expertise toward space. Sakurahara unveiled plans for a circulative renewable energy system designed to sustain long-term human activities, such as lunar colonies.

In collaboration with the Japanese firm Astrobotic, the concept involves a vertical solar array that would generate power during the Moon’s two-week-long day. A proprietary system would then use this electricity for electrolysis, splitting water to produce oxygen for breathing and hydrogen for energy storage. The hydrogen, pressurized to an extreme 10,000 psi without a compressor, would be combined with stored oxygen in fuel cells to generate electricity throughout the subsequent two-week lunar night. The necessary water is expected to be sourced from ice deposits believed to exist at the Moon’s south pole.

In a parallel initiative, Honda is repurposing technology from its retired ASIMO humanoid robot project. The goal is to develop human-controlled avatar robots for extraterrestrial operations. These robust and dexterous machines could perform tasks like construction, refueling, and delicate equipment repairs. Control could be managed locally on the lunar surface or remotely from Earth via a Honda satellite network. Sakurahara emphasizes that such robots would be incredibly valuable in the harsh space environment, freeing human operators from the limitations of physical location and bodily constraints.

This strategy of repurposing past R&D, even from projects that seemed to have reached a dead end, is deeply ingrained in Honda’s corporate culture. Abuelsamid observes that while the space endeavor might appear to be a departure, Honda is actually building upon core technologies it has long cultivated for ground transportation, including aerodynamics, fuel cells, advanced control systems, and robotics. He finds it compelling how the company can redirect this expertise into new ventures that offer benefits both for its business and for Japan.

Is Honda on the verge of dominating space? Not imminently. Sakurahara is quick to note that the company has not yet constructed or tested a full-scale rocket prototype, much less one capable of carrying a meaningful payload. He also states that a final decision on commercializing the system has not been made. Nevertheless, achieving a successful launch, maneuver, and landing of a concept vehicle without any catastrophic failures in just six years is a promising beginning.

Abuelsamid provides some context, pointing out that it took SpaceX roughly fifteen years to reach a similar milestone. He believes there is a definite possibility that Honda could be conducting orbital launches by the early 2030s, effectively challenging Elon Musk on multiple fronts. As for the ultimate goal of reaching Mars, Sakurahara brings the focus back to more immediate objectives. He contrasts the Moon’s distance of 380,000 kilometers with Mars, which can be over 380 million kilometers away, stating that for now, the primary target is to reliably reach 500 kilometers.

(Source: The Verge)