Fukagawa Drift Container: Final Rehearsal Held Ahead of Tomorrow's Opening

According to the Third Appraisal Center, the 28th's final rehearsal, as previously reported, used no actual container. Staff instead reproduced the same choreography and timing as the real procedure in front of the empty chamber. Following the completion of the airtightness test and equipment calibration on the 27th, the rehearsal ran through the full sequence — measuring internal pressure, cracking the lid just enough to sample gas, judging how far to open it from there, and an emergency shutdown in case anything unusual appeared — while confirming that the recording equipment stayed synchronized throughout. "This is practice so that, tomorrow, our hands don't stop for the first time when it matters," an official said.

On the results of the rehearsal, the center said it "found no uncertainty in the procedure itself," while again stressing, as previously reported, that "opening it doesn't necessarily mean we'll understand its nature right away." The phenomenon — the liquid surface's image failing to track when the vessel is tilted — has turned up no flaw in either the X-ray or acoustic measuring systems. "Equipment working correctly and understanding the nature of the contents are two different things," the official cautioned. "Please don't mistake a smooth rehearsal for getting closer to an answer."

The chair of the quarantine committee, who is scheduled to attend tomorrow, told this paper, "Seeing today's rehearsal put most of my concerns about the procedure to rest. I think of tomorrow as a continuation of the Sept. 16 deliberation. The point isn't opening it for its own sake — it's confirming whether the decision to keep the rest in storage was the right one." As previously reported, the quarantine committee decided on Sept. 16 to open only one of the three containers, with the other two to remain in storage for now; tomorrow's opening is limited to that single vessel.

The Fukagawa neighborhood association, as previously reported, remains split over whether the opening should happen at all. One officer who heard about the rehearsal said, "I've decided to attend tomorrow. I want to see with my own eyes what is and isn't learned." Another resident said, with a complicated look, "I'm still worried this will end up dragging in the two containers that are supposed to just stay in storage." The center plans to issue a same-day bulletin on the 29th on whether the container opened and what was confirmed, with detailed academic data expected in early October.

The rehearsal also settled one further point on the equipment side. Officials confirmed on the 28th that the video, audio, and pressure recording systems will all run on duplicated equipment in parallel on the day of the opening, as a hedge against failure. "If one side stops, the other keeps the record from breaking off," an engineer said. "It's unglamorous, but in this kind of work, redundant equipment is the biggest source of peace of mind." Plans were also confirmed to prioritize photographing and measuring the previously reported subtle differences in engraving style on the container being opened, with comparison data against the two staying in storage to be gathered more slowly, later on.

The chamber, rehearsal complete, sat locked through the night of the 28th, waiting for morning. The center has not backed off its outlook that "whatever is or isn't confirmed on the 29th, the underlying cause of the liquid surface's non-tracking image will likely remain unresolved for the time being." Even so, officials repeated the same line they had used since the 25th: keeping a record is the priority. This paper will carry the results of the 29th's opening as soon as they are available.