Yoshiyuki Tomino, the original creator of Mobile Suit Gundam, recently made a guest appearance at SPACETIDE 2025, a commercial space conference that took place this week in Tokyo. As reported by The Sankei Shimbun, Tomino participated in a joint discussion panel with renowned JAXA (Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency) professor Yoshifumi Inatani. The two delved into many space-related topics, including “space colonies,” one of the major themes Tomino covered in the Gundam series.
However, despite it being a concept he’s explored his work, Tomino expressed a pessimistic opinion on the matter, stating that “humans will never be able to live in space.” Apparently, this thought has been on his mind ever since creating the original Gundam concept.
“All the simpletons saying ‘Let’s immigrate to Mars’ have no idea how cruel outer space actually is. They’re just a bunch of people who don’t have the power to even fathom the distance between [us] and space.” He continues, “If you flew a rocket to Mars, what are you gonna do about fuel when the time comes to return [to Earth]? All of the people who say, ‘Let’s send humans to Mars’ without considering the fact that there are no supply bases there are a bunch of amateurs.”
Mobile Suit Gundam depicts a world in which humans immigrated to manmade space colonies due to overpopulation on Earth, and almost all mainline entries in the series depict these settlements. Apparently, Tomino spent over twenty years trying to think of how the people in Gundam could realistically realize immigration into space, and his final conclusion was – they can’t. “I never had a chance to openly say this when I was working on Gundam.”
On the other hand, Tomino emphasized that Japan’s space expansion should be focusing on space travel instead. “I believe that in the next 10 years, Japan should work on enabling people to do sightseeing tours in the low Earth orbit. Politicians, military personnel, religious figures and scientists should also be taken to low Earth orbit to see the Earth from there, not just tourists. “I’m sure that their view of the world would change,” he said. “I also want the children to be able to experience this, but for that. we’ll need to make rockets that are foolproof.”
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Who says we have to come back? I’m hoping to build a tomb remotely, that will mummify and preserve me until the end of the universe.
Let me get this straight. The clown who writes comics for a living is going to put down Musk, a guy who ACTUALLY BUILDS ROCKETS, and explain that he doesn’t understand space? What a jack off. Don’t worry, fiction writer, the world is well aware of what space is like, you’re not telling anyone any they don’t already know.
“..rockets that are foolproof.”. Another idiot who would relegate humanity to living in mud huts.. too afraid to take a risk. What a loser.
This is a pretty L take if I ever saw one especially when even Nasa is working on establishing a permanent moon base in 2026-2027 which we’ll be using as an inbetween for trips to mars for resupply, in the 2040’s beyond the early stages of colonies on mars will begin it Will take hundreds of years for us to terraform or build metropolis on mars but it is by no means impossible and is a long sought after dream of mankind that shall be realized, In addition to that Venus is expected to host laboratories in its cloud layer via floating cities.. While currently the realm of science fiction and hypothesis when the technology becomes available it will be realized.
Ah yes, let’s take astronomy advice from some arrogant prick who’s job is drawing pictures of robots in space. What could go wrong?
Alright settle down dreamers.
Musk has barely gotten rockets to space on a regular schedule, and at any given point and time there are fewer than 30 humans in space at any given time. Something that requires countless man hours, calculations, resources, and money. And those folks are still within orbit of the planet.
He said colonies on Mars. Is it possible? Sure. But I promise it won’t be until our grandkids are past retirement age before they even see a feasible way to get it done.
Not to mention, we can barely maintain a society here with ample resources without violence sooo….let’s think rationally and not like the people he’s referring to.
Why are people defending the Musk rat that has no actual beliefs beyond seeking validation of sweaty gamer nerds and leaving Earth? Guys I can smell you through my screen, chill lol.
I was thinking about what Elon saud and I’m PRETTY sure the first crew can expect to be “permanent” residents of Mars. ALSO, I don’t see us emigrating to another planet BEFORE we figure how to EFFICIENTLY detect valuable materials, mine AND refine them AND THEN we gotta figure out how to do all that in outer space. In short, the way OTHER technologies are advancing it could may several decades or more to achieve the requirements, but other than what I mentioned I don’t see why not ESPECIALLY considering how commercialized is becoming and the possibility of an international/multi conglomerate effort. 🤓🤷🏿
He’s simply voicing common sense. His life’s work focuses on stories of space colonization- but he’s able to understand the logistics. It’s an unbelievable waste of time and money. We live in an oasis and wanna goto the desert?
The moon is 238,900 miles from earth.
The closest Mars gets to earth is 33.9 MILLION miles.
Food and water consumption to sustain a population.
Just common sense that space colonies are not just improbable, they’re downright idiotic.
@JoeR “The clown who writes comics for a living is going to put down Musk, a guy who ACTUALLY BUILDS ROCKETS”
Musk wasn’t even mentioned? Thinking he builds rockets is another thing.
“too afraid to take a risk”
You know he’s talking about kids right? You’re willing to take risks with kids safety.