Far Out Space Porch

By Nick Mamatas June 12, 2009

One of the neat things about Japanese SF is that one of the recurring themes is international cooperation. Indeed, in The Lord of the Sands of Time, travelers from the twenty-sixth century travel back to the second century AD in order to propagate a set of Laws that declare catastrophe to be inevitable and cooperation between peoples the only hope for survival. Well, this isn't quite the same as teaming up to fight off an alien invasion across best stethoscope for nurses more than 100,000 years, but Space.com reports today that a Japanese "space porch" will be aboard the next Endeavor mission. Also, the porch is named "Jeff." Here's hoping this sort of international cooperation continues so that when the aliens arrive a heavily armed space portico named Lorraine will be in orbit to fight them off...