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From Our Own Correspondent: Japan and Nasa's Mars Yard

14/11/2012

Japan and Nasa's Mars Yard

BBC World Service - From Our Own Correspondent, Japan and Nasa's Mars Yard

Rupert Wingfield Hayes sails into a disputed zone; Richard Hollingham drives a Mars rover.

Rupert Wingfield Hayes sails into a disputed zone; Richard Hollingham drives a Mars rover - or tries to.

Gone fishing ... honestly, sir
Finding your feet in a new journalistic posting can be difficult - especially when you're really having to find your sea legs, on a small fishing boat, right in the middle of an extremely dangerous diplomatic dispute. Sent to explore the issue of a group of islands currently administered by Japan, but claimed by China - and called the Senkaku or Diaoyu Islands respectively - Rupert Wingfield Hayes ended up having to feign a great deal of interest in rods, reels and bait. He's convinced that pantomime illuminates something important about Japanese society today.

Small crash on Mars - none injured
What happens when you let a 'space nerd' loose in NASA's experimental playground? NASA recently found out when it allowed our Richard Hollingham to have a go at driving a version of the Mars rover vehicle Curiosity around its "Mars Yard". He went where  no man has gone before - straight into some rocks - but learned a lot about what makes the 'celebrity' original work as it plods across the red planet.

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