japan aerospace exploration agency

NASA scientists recently conducted a study on asteroid rocks that their spacecraft took from a distant "potentially hazardous"…

The saga of Japan’s lunar lander continues to unfold, with the first images of SLIM on the surface of the Moon revealing the unfortunate position the spacecraft has ended up in.China's Plan to Land Astronauts on the MoonNearly a week after the SLIM lander touched down on the Moon, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) released an image of its spacecraft taken by a tiny rover called Sora-Q, which arrived on the Moon with SLIM. The image shows SLIM in a bind, with its thrusters pointed upward and, worst of all, its…

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Japan's SLIM space probe entered the Moon's orbit on Monday in a major step towards the country's first successful lunar landing, expected next month. The Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) is nicknamed the "Moon Sniper" because it is designed to land within 100 metres (328 feet) of a specific target on the lunar surface.If successful, the touchdown would make Japan only the fifth country to have successfully landed a probe on the Moon, after the United States, Russia, China and India. On Monday, SLIM…

 Toyota Motor plans to use regenerative fuel cell technology to power a manned lunar rover, executives said on Friday, raising the prospect of eventually using the moon's water ice as an energy source in the future. Japan has stepped up its space ambitions under Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. It is participating in NASA's Artemis programme and plans to have an astronaut at a lunar space station called Gateway as part of that in the latter half of the 2020's.Toyota has teamed up with Japan's space agency since 2019 to…

Toyota Motor plans to use regenerative fuel cell technology to power a manned lunar rover, executives said on Friday, raising the prospect of eventually using the moon's water ice as an energy source in the future.Japan has stepped up its space ambitions under Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.It is participating in NASA's Artemis programme and plans to have an astronaut at a lunar space station called Gateway as part of that in the latter half of the 2020's. Toyota has teamed up with Japan's space agency since 2019 to develop…

The second-gen e-POWER with a VC turbo engine lowers the RPMs and the frequency of the engine starts.Nissan’s e-4ORCE technology is used by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to control the prototype lunar rover’s driving force. This technology enables the prototype rover to properly drive in extreme conditions, such as the rugged, volcanic landscape of Miyakejima, a Japanese volcanic island, where the basaltic sand is similar to the Moon’s regolith.The…

The Vulcan Certification One Booster, May 10, 2022. Photo: ULAAnother heavy-lift launch vehicle we’re excited about is the two-stage Vulcan Centaur being developed by United Launch Alliance. The fully expendable 202-foot-tall (62-meter) rocket, in development since 2014, is set to replace ULA’s Atlas V and Delta IV rockets, both of which have been in use for the past two decades. “The Vulcan Centaur Program was established by ULA to reduce cost, increase launch capability and provide the opportunity to partner with…

Launch of H3 on March 6, 2023.Photo: Kyodo News (AP)Japan’s H3 rocket failed to reach orbit on Monday, so instead of celebrating the debut of a flagship launch vehicle, Japan’s space agency is scrambling to understand what went wrong and what it means for Japanese space policy going forward. There’s also a backlash afoot, with a former astronaut rightly asking why a $2o0 million satellite was included in the test mission.The H3 rocket took flight on Monday at 8:37 p.m. ET, lifting off from the Tanegashima Space Center in…

Japan's new medium-lift rocket failed on its debut flight in space on Tuesday after the launcher's second-stage engine did not ignite as planned, in a blow to its efforts to cut the cost of accessing space and compete against Elon Musk's SpaceX. The 57-metre (187 ft) tall H3 rocket, Japan's first new model in three decades, lifted off without a hitch from the Tanegashima space port, a live-streamed broadcast by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) showed. But upon reaching space, the rocket's second-stage…