Activities and Roadmaps of Japanese Lunar and Planetary Exploration
- Paper number
IAC-07-E3.4.02
- Author
Mr. Kohtaro Matsumoto, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (IAT/JAXA), Japan
- Coauthor
Dr. Junichiro Kawaguchi, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)/ISAS, Japan
- Coauthor
Dr. Makoto Yoshikawa, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Japan
- Coauthor
Dr. Tatsuaki Hashimoto, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)/ISAS, Japan
- Coauthor
Mr. Takahiro Abe, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Japan
- Year
2007
- Abstract
Lunar and planetary exploration promotion team was organized in April 2006, to make definite and programatic exploration programs for moon and solar system based on the JAXA’s long term vision, “JAXA 2025”. Three sub teams were organized in the team; SELENE follow-on sub team, the solar system exploration sub-team, and the human lunar outpost sub team. For the solar system exploration, the hottest task is the HAYABUSA follow-on mission, to continue the leading role of the primitive body scientific exploration. HAYABUSA, the first explorer touching down a primitive body, is still continuing its effort to return to the earth with possible primitive body sample. To ensure the primitive body sample return, HAYABUSA-2 mission project was organized and proposed, in last year. HAYABUSA-2 will go to a C-type asteroid as early as 2010, and will be developed with minimum improvement to HAYABUSA, to shorten the development period under serious budget constraint. The long term roadmap of solar system exploration has also been discussed in this sub team, with cooperation from JAXA outside, such as universities. In the roadmap, the programatic plan of the solar system exploration for next a few decades has been discussed from various view points, science, technology, and public. For the lunar exploration, JAXA will launch SELENE in this summer, with 13 scientific sensors and high definition TV for public interest. SELENE is the first full-scale lunar orbitor after Apollo era, and its data are expected to be the 1st step of the advanced new lunar exploration era in 21st century, to expand human presence and activities beyond earth. As the SELENE follow-on, we have studied the lunar lander concept from 2000, with precise navigation and control, autonomous obstacle avoidance, teleoperated moon rover, and so on. In the SELENE follow-on sub team, various missions were discussed from the viewpoints as the long term lunar exploration program. The team is proposing a lunar landing project SELENE-2. The spacecraft will be launched by H-2A rocket in early 2010s and land on Eternal Light Region (ELR) in the lunar polar region. The missions of SELENE-2 are lunar science, lunar resource investigation, environment examination for human lunar exploration, and technology development and demonstration such as precise autonomous landing, surface mobility, and surviving technologies in the moon night. For the human lunar outpost, required technologies for human exploration and long term exploration architecture are discussed. For the human space technologies, a few technologies are identified, as the major issues for Japanese human space technologies following ISS-JEM. Those tecnologies will be developed and demonstarted at our JEM. The typical human support technologies might be the life support technology and the space suits. Pressurized human rover might also be the important technology for human lunar exploration. The long term lunar exploration architecture has been still under exmination, as the lunar activities roadmap from the robotic precursor to the human outposts. As the definite result of these team activities, the lunar and planetary exploration group will be organized as the new JAXA institute, independent from the existing departments or institutes. The purpose of this new insitute is the strategic and efficient implementation of the series of projects for lunar and solar system exploration, for the science, utilization, and human exploration. The technological researches are also important role of this institute to realize and support the programmed projects. In the conference, we hope to report the latest status of our new exploration institute, project status for HAYABUSA-2 and SELENE-2, and long term roadmap for lunar and solar system exploration.
- Abstract document