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Bandai Namco To Send Gundam Fans' Messages To The Moon

One of the narrative points in the Universal Century stories in the Mobile Suit Gundam franchise is the emergence of the next evolution of humans. Called Newtypes, these humans exhibit heightened awareness or even psychic powers. However, the 2010 series Mobile Suit Gundam UC changed the dynamic between Newtypes and Oldtypes (humans who lack the psychic or heightened awareness) with the introduction of the original monument of the Charter of the Universal Century. Fought over by numerous organizations in the series, its reveal is a pivotal moment in the Universal Century franchise of Gundam and inspires a message of hope. Now, the Gundam Open Innovation (GOI) project is creating a replica monument of the Charter of the Universal Century filled with messages of hope and sending it to the moon.

The initiative to send a replica monument of the Charter of the Universal Century filled with messages of hope, called the GOI Charter of the Universal Century Plate, was announced on the GOI's X (formerly Twitter) account in November 2023. The program took messages until November 18, 2023. Along with this, the program announced that 20 participants would receive a replica of the Plate.

The Gundam.info website stated that the GOI was looking for messages to ourselves, family, or the special people in our lives concerning space and the future. Specifically, the GOI was looking for, “Messages that would make people smile when they see them on the moon.”

The website also revealed that the initiative was a partnership between GOI partner Tohoku University and Ispace, Inc. Tohoku University created an aluminum-added high manganese steel plate for the messages to be printed on and launched with Ispaces HAKUTO-R Mission 2 Moon Mission. According to Ispace, assembly of the HAKUTO-R Mission 2 flight model was expected to finish in Spring 2024 followed by environmental tests and launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket no earlier than Winter 2024.

The GOI announced on February 16 that the 20 replica GOI Charter of the Universal Century Plates were being prepared for shipping and fans should be expecting them soon.

Hopefully, the messages printed on the GOI Charter of the Universal Century initiative's Plate are ones of peace and hope. Perhaps the messages will be brought back to Earth by the Moon Race and its princess!

Sources: Gundam.info's website, Gundam Open Innovation's X/Twitter account (link 2), Ispace Inc.'s website, Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan Web