History of Scientific Satellites in Japan
- Paper number
IAC-05-E4.4.04
- Author
Dr. Ichiro Nakatani, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)/ISAS, Japan
- Year
2005
- Abstract
Space development in Japan has a long history with the initial activities dating back to the mid-1950s when “Pencil Rockets” were tested by Prof. Itokawa at the University of Tokyo. Japan’s satellite history, however, began in 1970 when the University of Tokyo launched “Ohsumi” by its Lambda rocket and Japan became the 4th country to launch a satellite. Since then Japan has launched 25 scientific satellites mostly by its M-series launchers. The organization in charge of Japan’s scientific satellites has been ISAS up to now, but the structure changed twice. The first ISAS, the Institute of Space and Aeronautical Science, belonging to the University of Tokyo launched 12 satellites. In 1981, ISAS was separated from the University of Tokyo with “A” in ISAS meaning “Astronautical”. This 2nd ISAS was what was called the inter-university organization and launched 13 satellites with a participation of the universities across Japan. In 2003, ISAS, NASDA and NAL merged creating JAXA, and the 3rd ISAS has remained responsible for scientific satellites with the university participation. ISAS with limited budget and manpower originally focused on 3 major fields: X-ray astronomy, space plasma physics and solar astronomy. With the development of M-3SII launcher Halley’s comet observation was successfully conducted in 1986. The full-fledged deep space mission, however, realized only after M-V launch vehicle was developed in 1997. In addition to the above mentioned 3 space science fields, ISAS have come up with new arenas covering radio astronomy, lunar and planetary exploration and infrared astronomy. The latest launch was Hayabusa in 2002 with the mission of asteroid sample return. International collaborations have increasingly played important roles in the activities of space science across the world and ISAS’s space science missions have been no exceptions.
- Abstract document