Japan Moon Lander Sleeps After Sending Science — Will It Wake Up Again?

SLIM image of moon
This is the last scene of the moon taken by Japan's SLIM lander before the sun dropped beneath the lunar horizon. (JAXA Photo)

After a few days of wakefulness, Japan’s SLIM moon lander has gone dormant once more at the start of a 14-day-long lunar night. The upended robot sent back a stream of data and imagery while its solar cells were in position to soak up sunlight, and its handlers hope they can get SLIM to wake up again and resume its work after lunar sunrise in mid-February.

Continue reading “Japan Moon Lander Sleeps After Sending Science — Will It Wake Up Again?”

Japan’s Moon Lander Is Lying On Its Side After Hitting Its Target

Image of SLIM lander on moon
An image sent back by a mini-probe shows Japan's SLIM lander on its side on the lunar surface. (JAXA / Takara Tomy / Sony Group / Doshisha Univ.)

Now we know why Japan’s lunar lander wasn’t able to recharge its batteries after touching down on the moon last week: The spacecraft appears to have tumbled onto its side, with its solar cells facing away from the sun.

The good news is that the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, or SLIM, achieved its primary mission of setting down within 100 meters (330 feet) of its target point — and that the mission’s two mini-probes, which were ejected during SLIM’s descent, are working as intended.

Scores of images were taken before and after landing. One of the pictures. captured by a camera on the ball-shaped LEV-2 mini-probe, shows the lander sitting at an odd angle with its thrusters facing upward and its solar cells facing westward.

To conserve battery power, mission managers at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency shut down SLIM after the probes transmitted the imagery they collected. But there’s still a chance that the sun’s shifting rays could provide enough power to allow for further operations in the week ahead.

Continue reading “Japan’s Moon Lander Is Lying On Its Side After Hitting Its Target”

Japan Tests Robotic Earth-Moving Equipment in a Simulated Lunar Jobsite

Artist's impression of the A4CSEL technology creating a lunar base. Credit: Kajima

Japan has embarked on an exciting new lunar program that will test automated remote construction machinery for the Moon. In 2021, representatives from the Kajima Corporation, the National Research and Development Agency, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), and the Shibaura Institute of Technology announced they would be working with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism (MLIT) to develop a next-generation construction system (A4CSEL®) that will enable the creation of lunar infrastructure.

This new collaborative venture, known as the Space Unmanned Construction Innovative Technology Development Promotion Project, will create an A4CSEL system capable of operating in the harsh lunar environment. In a recent statement, Kajima announced that it would connect the approximately 20-square kilometer (7.72 mi2) Kashima Seisho Experimental Field with JAXA’s Sagamihara Campus. Here, they are conducting experiments to validate automated remote construction machinery in a simulated lunar environment, which could lead to the creation of a lunar base!

Continue reading “Japan Tests Robotic Earth-Moving Equipment in a Simulated Lunar Jobsite”

ESA Gives Green Light on its Comet Interceptor Mission

Comets, with their long, beautiful, bright tails of ice, are some of the most spectacular sightings in the night sky. This was most apparent when Comet NEOWISE passed by Earth in the summer of 2020, dazzling viewers from all over the planet while being mainly visible in the northern hemisphere. Even though the sky might look the same night after night, comets are a humble reminder that the universe is a very active and beautiful place.

Continue reading “ESA Gives Green Light on its Comet Interceptor Mission”

Japan’s Hayabusa 2 Probe Drops Off Bits of an Asteroid and Heads for Its Next Target

Hayabusa 2 artwork
An artist's conception shows Hayabusa 2's sample return capsule making its atmospheric re-entry as its mothership flies above. (JAXA Illustration)

Japan’s Hayabusa 2 probe zoomed past Earth on December 5th and dropped off a capsule containing bits of an asteroid, finishing a six-year round trip.

But the mission is far from over: While Hayabusa 2’s parachute-equipped sample capsule descended to the Australian Outback, its mothership set a new course for an encounter with yet another asteroid in 2031.

Hayabusa 2’s prime objective was to deliver bits of Ryugu, an asteroid that’s currently 11.6 million kilometers from Earth. Mission controllers at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, cheered and laughed when word came that the capsule had survived atmospheric re-entry.

Imagery captured by tracking cameras — and from the International Space Station — showed the capsule streaking like a fireball across the sky as it decelerated from an initial speed of 43,000 kilometers per hour.

Continue reading “Japan’s Hayabusa 2 Probe Drops Off Bits of an Asteroid and Heads for Its Next Target”

Here’s the Video of Hayabusa2 Bombing Asteroid Ryugu

Artist's impression of the Hayabusa2 spacecraft touching down on the surface of the asteroid Ryugu. Credit: JAXA/Akihiro Ikeshita?

As part of its mission to explore the Near-Earth Asteroid (NEA)
162173 Ryugu, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency‘s (JAXA) Hayabusa2 spacecraft recently dropped a “bomb” on the asteroid’s surface. This explosive package, known as the Small Carry-on Impactor (SCI), was specifically designed to create a crater in the surface, thus exposing the interior for analysis.

The deployment of the SCI took place on April 5th, exactly six weeks after the spacecraft collected its first sample from the surface. Last Sunday, (April 21st, 2019), JAXA provided the video of the “bombing run” via the mission’s official twitter account. This was followed four days later by images of the crater that resulted, which revealed darker material from the interior that was now exposed to space.

Continue reading “Here’s the Video of Hayabusa2 Bombing Asteroid Ryugu”

So Cool! Japanese Space Research Center will be Suspended Over a Moonlike Crater

The robotics research center will be suspended 18 meters above the man-made "crater", which is actually an old mine site. Image: Clouds Architecture Office.
The robotics research center will be suspended 18 meters above the man-made "crater", which is actually an old mine site. Image: Clouds Architecture Office.

The architectural design behind Japan’s new space research center is mind-boggling. The futuristic building will incorporate elements of spacecraft design, which emphasize light weight and high functionality. The whole thing will be suspended over a man-made, Moon-like crater.

Continue reading “So Cool! Japanese Space Research Center will be Suspended Over a Moonlike Crater”

Japan’s Black Hole Telescope Is In Trouble

An artist's drawing of Japan's Hitomi observatory. Image Credit: JAXA/Akihiro Ikeshita
An artist's drawing of Japan's Hitomi observatory. Image Credit: JAXA/Akihiro Ikeshita

The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has lost contact with its X-ray Astronomy Satellite Hitomi (ASTRO-H.) Hitomi was launched on February 17th, for a 3-year mission to study black holes. But now that mission appears to be in jeopardy.

Hitomi is a collaboration between JAXA and NASA. Its mission was to investigate how galaxy clusters were formed and influenced by dark matter and dark energy, and to understand how super-massive black holes form and evolve at the center of galaxies. Hitomi was also to “unearth the physical laws governing extreme conditions in neutron stars and black holes,” according to JAXA.

Japan has managed two very short communications with Hitomi, but they were very brief, and JAXA has not been able to determine the nature of the problem. Now, JSpOC, the US Joint Space Operations Center, say they have detected debris in the vicinity of Hitomi, and in a press release this morning (March 29th), JAXA says “it is estimated that Hitomi separated to five pieces at about 10:42 a.m.”

Hitomi was going to be an important contribution to the fleet of space telescopes used by astrophysicists and cosmologists. It has a cutting edge instrument called the X-ray micro-calorimeter, which would have observed X-rays from space with the greatest sensitivity of any instrument so far. If all that is lost, it will be quite a blow.

There’s no definitive word yet on what exactly has happened to Hitomi. Japan is using ground stations in different parts of the world to try to communicate with their observatory. It’s important to note that there is no agreement that the craft has broken apart. The press releases are translations from Japanese to English, so the exact meaning of “separated to five pieces” is unclear.

It’s possible that there was a small explosion of some sort, and that some debris from that explosion is in the vicinity of Hitomi. It’s also possible that JAXA will re-establish communications with the craft as time goes on.

Other observatories have suffered serious problems, and have eventually been brought back under control and completed their missions. The ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) suffered serious problems at the beginning of its mission in 1995, entering emergency mode 3 times before all contact was lost. Eventually, SOHO was brought under control, and what was supposed to be a 2-year mission has lasted 20.

Universe Today will be following this story to see if Hitomi can be made operational. For readers wanting to know more about Hitomi’s mission, read JAXA’s excellent Hitomi press kit.

Japanese ‘Space Cannon’ On Track For Aiming At An Asteroid: Reports

Painting of Asteroid 2012 DA14. © David A. Hardy/www.astroart.org

Watch out, asteroid 1999 JU3: you’re being targeted. As several media reports reminded us, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)’s Hayabusa-2 asteroid exploration mission will carry a ‘space cannon’ on board — media-speak for the “collision device” that will create an artificial crater on the asteroid’s surface.

“An artificial crater that can be created by the device is expected to be a small one with a few meters in diameter, but still, by acquiring samples from the surface that is exposed by a collision, we can get fresh samples that are less weathered by the space environment or heat,” JAXA states on its website.

Reports indicate JAXA is on schedule to, er, shoot this thing into space for a 2018 rendezvous with an asteroid. The spacecraft will stick around the asteroid for about a year before heading back to Earth in 2020. The overall aim is to learn more about the origin of the solar system by looking at a C-type asteroid, considered to be a “primordial body” that gives us clues as to the early solar system’s makeup.

Check out more on Hayabusa-2 on JAXA’s website.

A Colorful Art Project You Can Only Do In Space

On Expedition 27 in May 2011, NASA astronaut Cady Coleman participated in the Auroral Oval Spiral Top experiment. Credit: NASA

Wow! That was our reaction to seeing this picture (and others) of a light show aboard the International Space Station. After confirming with NASA that the images circulating lately on social media are real, we were directed to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), who co-ordinated this experiment.

The work is called “Auroral Oval Spiral Top” and was done in the Kibo module on May 12, 2011, JAXA said. This was the second version of the experiment, which initially ran April 30, 2009 during Expedition 19.

Spiral Top performed in 2009. The art project was an earlier version of the Auroral Oval Spiral Top experiment that was done in May 2011. Credit: NASA/JAXA
Spiral Top performed in 2009. The art project was an earlier version of the Auroral Oval Spiral Top experiment that was done in May 2011. Credit: NASA/JAXA

“Auroral Oval Spiral Top uses a spinning top that has arms illuminating with LED linear light sources and point light sources. Various movements of the spinning top floating in microgravity show aurora-like light traces,” JAXA stated on a web page about the experiment.

The project, JAXA added, is “designed to produce aurora-like luminescence traces using a spinning top with both linear and point light sources. In microgravity, the center of gravity of the spinning top continuously and randomly moves while it is spinning. Using the characteristics of the top in microgravity, the project tries to produce various light arts using its unexpected movements/spins, by changing attaching locations of its arms and weights.”

Takuro Osaka, a professor at the University of Tsukuba, was the principal investigator of this art project. What are your favorite experiments performed by astronauts in space? Let us know in the comments.

Another view of the Auroral Oval Spiral Top experiment. Credit: NASA
Another view of the Auroral Oval Spiral Top experiment. Credit: NASA