Search Results

Officials at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Toyota Motor Corp. in Tokyo have taken a first step toward collaborating on international space exploration, having agreed to accelerate their ongoing joint study of a manned, pressurized rover powered by fuel cell technologies to enable lunar mobility.

Established on July 1, the ECLAIR consortium will focus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and other negative environmental impacts of the aerospace industry by developing innovative electric technologies.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) H-IIB Launch Vehicle No. 7 lifted off from the Tanegashima Space Center in Japan at 2:54:27 Japan Standard Time (JST) on September 23, carrying the KOUNOTORI7 (HTV7) cargo transporter into orbit to start its journey to the International Space Station (ISS).

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) officials have released the first images from two unmanned rovers that landed safely on the surface of asteroid Ryugu just days ago.

Bridgestone Corp. in Tokyo and Nashville, Tennessee, is joining Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Toyota Motor Corp. in an international space exploration mission to expand the domain of human activity and develop intellectual property on space exploration.

JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) has been conducting a research on a future commercial tilt wing VTOL (Vertical TakeOff and Landing) transport under JAXA's "Sky Frontier" Program aiming to develop technologies for aircraft innovation. ...JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) has been conducting a research on a future commercial tilt wing VTOL (Vertical TakeOff and Landing) transport under JAXA's "Sky Frontier" Program aiming to develop technologies for aircraft innovation. The research focuses on QTW (Quad Tilt Wing) civil VTOL transport, which features tandem tilt wings with propellers mounted at the mid-span of each wing.

Five astronauts and cosmonauts representing three space agencies: ESA, RSA, and JAXA were surveyed regarding their experiences with ten general categories of psychological stressors and eight subcategories of interpersonal conflict.

A regenerative Air Revitalization system has been developed by JAXA. Its major assemblies are a CO2 concentration assembly which contains membrane dryers to remove humidity and zeolite to remove CO2, a CO2 reduction assembly, and a water electrolysis assembly to which water is supplied in the vapor phase through molecule-size pores in a NAFION membrane rather than as liquid to solve the problem of gas-liquid separation in microgravity conditions.

In six short months, ISS integrates ECLS systems with the Node 2, Columbus module, Japanese Logistics Module, and Automated Transfer Vehicle developed and produced by the European Space Agency (ESA) and Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The new systems provide both international unique hardware and common ISS hardware. An overview of the integrated ECLS system and the unique capabilities of each new module is provided.

Implementation of this plan also involves coordination with the Nodes and Multi-Purpose Pressurized Logistics Module (MPLM) project offices, Regenerative ECLS Project, ISS Payloads, JAXA, ESA, and ISS Logistics and Maintenance.

The second Flight Unit is under preparation to be delivered at NASA-KSC in 2004 for JAXA, the Japanese Space Agency. Compared to the first unit, the acceptance of this second unit imposes the verification of requirements specific to the JEM, the Japanese Module in ISS.

This paper discusses the robotic instrumentation associated with the LORE (Lunar Origins and Resource Exploration) miniature payload proposed for JAXA's Selene-2, and the potential follow-on CSA INUKSHUK landed-Mars mission. LORE would for the first time systematically explore the lunar surface and subsurface ice distribution, dust, mineralogy and resources using combined UV/VIS/MIR reflectance spectroscopy.

Astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) have launched RemoveDEBRIS, the first satellite with space debris-removal capabilities and the largest satellite ever deployed from the ISS. RemoveDEBRIS, a low Earth orbit test bed for determining the efficacy of active debris removal (ADR) systems, is a multinational effort involving space agencies, aerospace experts, and technologies from throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, and the U.S.

The IBUKI-2 (GOSAT-2) greenhouse gas observation satellite co-developed by the Japanese Ministry of Environment, National Institute of Environmental Studies Japan, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has completed the critical operations phase following its launch into orbit. JAXA officials have received telemetry data from the satellite that confirm the attitude control system has transitioned to a steady, stable state.

This paper reports a development of a εH measurement system. The system has been evaluated by comparing the measurement data with the data, which were obtained by conventional reliable techniques in the laboratory. From the evaluation results it was confirmed that the measurement accuracies of the present systems is Δε = ±0.05. Now this system is being improved for higher measurement accuracy, and it will be commercialized in 2007.

A conceptual model of a life support system which circulates material using a physicochemical treatment has been designed. This self-contained partially circulated life support system, called SEPAL, comprises a water electrolysis system using a PEM (Polymer Electrolysis Membrane) and solar collector for a Sabatier reactor. The lack of buoyancy in microgravity causes liquid-gas separation and interferes with conventional water electrolysis. This problem can be solved by supplying water in the vapor phase through molecule size pores in the NAFION electrolysis membrane. This new system connects to a Sabatier reactor, which provides the water vapor for the electrolysis system. This paper describes test results of the main system elements and preliminary test results of the oxygen and hydrogen production system. With a small satellite making use of surplus lifting capacity, the experiment is proposed to demonstrate this circulated life support system.

Cross-industry partnerships received a boost this week, as Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Toyota Motor Corp. officials announced increased cooperation on unmanned, electrified, and automated rovers for space exploration.

A lightweight 100 W-class deployable radiator with environment-adaptive functions has been investigated. This radiator - Reversible Thermal Panel (RTP) - is composed of flexible high thermal conductive materials and a passive reversible actuator, and it changes its function from a radiator to a solar absorber by deploying/stowing the reversible fin upon changes in the heat dissipation and thermal environment. The RTP is considered one of the candidates of thermal control methodology for the Japanese Venus mission “Planet-C”, which will be launched in 2010 to save its survival heater power. In this paper, design and fabrication of the RTP proto-model (PM) and the test results of deployment/stowing characteristics in an atmospheric condition are reported. Thermal performance estimation with thermal analytical model of the RTP PM is also presented.

The applicability of high-performance computing (HPC) to vehicle aerodynamics is presented using a Cartesian grid approach of computational fluid dynamics. Methodology that allows the user to avoid a large amount of manual work in preparing geometry is indispensable in HPC simulation whereas conventional methodologies require much manual work. The new frame work allowing a solver to treat ‘dirty’ computer-aided-design data directly was developed with a modified immersed boundary method. The efficiency of the calculation of the vehicle aerodynamics using HPC is discussed. The validation case of flow with a high Reynolds number around a sphere is presented. The preparation time for the calculation is approximately 10 minutes. The calculation time for flow computation is approximately one-tenth of that of conventional unstructured code.

New materials-new tests material development calls for new testing techniques to be used, aided by key service suppliers.