Advanced Space Propulsion Investigation Committee (ASPIC) was a research group of specialists, including Y.Minami, and T.Musha, which was organized under the Japan Society for Aeronautical and Space Sciences in 1994. The purpose of which was to study all kinds of non-chemical space propulsion systems instead of the conventional rocket for the use of space missions to the near-by Earth, the Moon, and the outer solar system, including plasma propulsion, laser propulsion

Laser propulsion

Laser propulsion is a form of beam-powered propulsion where the energy source is a remote laser system and separate from the reaction mass...

, nuclear propulsion

Nuclear propulsion

Nuclear propulsion includes a wide variety of propulsion methods that fulfil the promise of the Atomic Age by using some form of nuclear reaction as their primary power source.- Surface ships and submarines :...

, solar sail

Solar sail

Solar sails are a form of spacecraft propulsion using the radiation pressure of light from a star or laser to push enormous ultra-thin mirrors to high speeds....

 and field propulsion

Field propulsion

Field propulsion is the concept of spacecraft propulsion where no propellant is necessary but instead momentum of the spacecraft is changed by an interaction of the spacecraft with external force fields....

systems which utilize a strain on space, zero-point energy in a vacuum, electro-gravitic effect, non-Newtonian gravitic effect predicted from the Einstein Theory of Gravity, and the terrestrial magnetism. The research report was published by the Japan Society for Aeronautical and Space Sciences in March 1996.