NASA announced earlier this week that it has finalized an agreement with animation studio Trigger to begin collaboration on plans for future missions into space. The announcement marks the first time that NASA has formally collaborated with a media company to advance its scientific projects.

Despite the seemingly odd partnership, Trigger has much prior experience with traveling into space having worked on projects such as Kill la Kill, Space Patrol Luluco, Darling in the Franxx, and Promare. NASA stated that it hopes to utilize some of Trigger’s ideas and ambitions to assist with future expeditions.

“Studio Trigger has a long history of space travel, often at the disregard of logical limits or reasoning,” stated NASA engineer lead Samuel Bergmann. “We believe this kind of ambition will be exactly what we will need if we intend to expand mankind’s knowledge and influence beyond that of our home planet.”

The announcement appears to coincide with NASA’s Artemis Project which aims to land human beings on the moon’s surface by the year 2024. If successful, the program would lead the way towards major scientific advancements by establishing a more sustainable human presence in space.

NASA stated that Trigger had already provided valuable input into development such as giving the spacecraft more thematic color schemes and suggesting ways the craft could potentially “transform” throughout the launch phase in order to adapt to different scenarios.

“Some of the designs do look pretty cool,” said NASA researcher Darren Rowell. “One of the concepts had a large drill attached to the top of the craft that they claimed was for ‘piercing the heavens’ although I’m not sure how that assists with breaking through the stratosphere where low temperatures and air pressure are more of a concern than physical barriers.”

Trigger staff appeared eager and more than willing to engage with the project. Director Hiroyuki Imaishi stated that they wished to get to space as soon as possible, hoping to beat the already ambitious 2024 date.

Elon Musk’s private aerospace company SpaceX did not seem phased by the announcement, estimating that it would be ready for commercial space travel within two years – a claim Musk felt confident in after he had consulted with studio ufotable for budgeting advice.

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