Drawing lessons from one of the worst disasters in the nation's history, a team of Japanese researchers is developing an artificial intelligence-based tsunami-forecasting system set for release in fiscal 2020 that could help limit loss of life and property in future calamities. In March 2011, massive tsunami 30 meters high triggered by a 9.1 magnitude earthquake destroyed a large swath of the Tohoku coastline, taking not only residents but also entire communities and businesses by surprise. The researchers hope the new system will help municipalities and companies nationwide better prepare for any future calamities and prevent related disasters, such as the triple core meltdown at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant that resulted from the tsunami. The team, made up of researchers from risk management consultancy Tokio Marine & Nichido Risk Consulting Co. and the National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience are working on the nation's first system for predicting the likelihood of tsunami based on location, as well as the scope of damage in areas expected to be hit. "The existing forecasting system only estimates the maximum height of a tsunami but not its likelihood … and sometimes there are no available measures to prepare for the worst-case scenario," a spokesman for Tokio Marine & Nichido Risk Consulting said by phone.

BANGALORE, INDIA – Among the five teams competing in the world's first international lunar probe contest, one of them, India's TeamIndus, is unique in its beginning and breadth of cooperation with a rival team. The Bangalore-based startup firm is the only Indian team in the Google Lunar XPRIZE contest, in which five privately funded finalists are competing to land their spacecraft on the moon and deploy robotic rovers on its surface. TeamIndus has partnered with the Japanese team to transport the latter's rover as well as its own to the moon using its own spacecraft, which is to be launched aboard an Indian rocket in March. It is the first collaboration between two of the contest's private enterprise competitors. "It's a privilege that we have the Japanese team flying with us to the moon surface," said Rahul Narayan, founder of TeamIndus.

A Japanese team comprising Tokyo-based startup ispace and Tohoku University expects to complete its moon-bound robot contestant for Google Inc.'s exploration contest by next January. Hakuto will compete against 15 other teams from around the world to win the Google Lunar X Prize, the world's first private-sector competition to explore the lunar surface. The teams will send probes developed with money and technology from the private sector to the moon, get them to travel 500 meters or farther on its dusty surface, and transmit 360-degree images back to Earth. The first team to complete the mission will win the grand prize of 20 million. While the deadline for completing the mission is the end of 2017, none of the teams has landed a probe there yet.