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#ISASNews

Cool ideas in #JAXA #ISASNews this month, including avoiding the "7 minutes of terror" by taking an inflatable down to the surface of Mars, robots to collect lunar samples, a search for dark matter signatures above Antartica, and pondering on the changes the pandemic brought to society.

The full stories (in Japanese) are here: https://www.isas.jaxa.jp/outreach/isas_news/2025/

The Deployable Aeroshell for landing on Mars by Yamada Kazuhiko, Department of Space Flight Systems. Landing on the red planet is considered one of the most challenging aspects to exploring the surface of Mars. The thin atmosphere makes deceleration difficult, turning the descent into the “7 minutes of terror” as multiple steps must be completed flawlessly to land at safe speeds. A possible solution is a deployable aeroshell, which consists of a flexible membrane with a diameter of about 2.5m and a mass less than 4kg. The aeroshell is inflated before atmospheric entry and can slow the descent even at high altitudes and in a thin atmosphere, avoiding the need for additional landing mechanics. This lightweight technology could be used to deploy ultra-small landers across the Martian surface, opening the doorway to a new kind of exploration.

Robots for lunar science by Yoshimitsu Tetsuo. In order to collect scientifically valuable samples, geologists conduct a field survey, with analysis on-site, to select the best material. But on the lunar surface, this will require autonomous exploration rovers that can discover, analyse, and collect samples without support from Earth. LEV-1 onboard the SLIM lander was Japan’s first lunar exploration rover. At 2.1kg, this was compact & lightweight, but with minimum exploration capabilities. The next step involves a highly autonomous 50kg-class rover for the lunar south pole. This can be followed by a 200kg rover designed to traverse more difficult terrain, extract samples, and survive the strong variation in temperatures at low latitudes. The future goal is to develop exploration rovers that can also be used on Mars.

The Antarctic expedition for the GAPS cosmic-ray anti-particle search by Mizukoshi Keita. Observations of galaxies suggest the existence of an unexplained gravitational source called dark matter. Leading theories predict that anti-deuteron particles could be produced thought interactions between dark matter particles. However, such particles are easily affected by the Earth’s magnetic field and cannot pass through the atmosphere. To search for these, the GAPS (General Anti-Particle Spectrometer) experiment therefore plans to use a large balloon for long-term flight in the stratosphere near the south pole. GAPS is an international collaborative research project, using Antarctic circumnavigation balloons operated by NASA. The team visited McMurdo Station in Antartica at the end of last year, but unfortunately weather conditions did not allow for the balloon release. The team will make a new attempt at the end of 2025!

Before and after COVID-19 by Fujiwara Akira. 18 years ago, Fujiwara retired from ISAS and returned to Kyoto. He became involved in the “Cafe Scientifique de KYOTO”, where scientists from various fields give lectures once a month and chat with the public. The cafe had ran since 2004, but the COVID-19 pandemic brought progress to a halt and there were concerns that the event would not continue. However, after a three and half year hiatus, the cafe returned in September 2003, and will soon reach its 200th session. But not everything is the same. Fujiwara notes that while topics remain diverse, there is an increase in discussion on the negative aspects of science, such as environment considerations, which reflect recent times. Since COVID-19, Fujiwara has also participated in courses run on Zoom, and appreciates the benefits of having access to such a wide variety of information from home. However, he notes that there is a risk of becoming cooped up, and regularly runs along the river. He is attempting to run a total of 6,378 km: the radius of the Earth!

This edition of #ISASNews also looked at plans for a new lunar observatory, TSUKUYOMI 🌝, and personal accounts of rescuing a ballooning telescope from Canada 🔭, memories of launching the M-rocket series at Uchinoura Space Center 🛰️, and an interview with the power system expert who designed the battery for the SLIM lunar lander!

The TSUKUYOMI Lunar Observatory Project by Yamada Tooru.
TSUKUYOMI is a plan to deploy numerous radio observation antennas on the Moon, with the primary goal of observing neutral hydrogen from the “dark ages” of the Universe. This is the era before the formation of stars and galaxies, which TSUKUYOMI will probe to understand the conditions in the Universe at this time. More technically, TSUKUYOMI wants to observe the 21cm line global signal. The Earth’s ionosphere and our own artificial radio waves makes these observations very difficult from our planet. However, precise observations are expected to be possible if TSUKUYOMI sits on the far side of the Moon, where the Earth is not visible. This is a scientific goal that can be truly realised on the lunar surface!

Overcoming the border wall: The journey to recover a balloon by Ishibashi Kazunori.
On 14 July 2024, the international scientific balloon mission, XL-Calibur, successfully landed in Canada. Recovery initially progressed smoothly, with the skilled team completing all the work at the landing site near the village of Kugluktuk in just two days. But then, the team hit a problem. Usually, instruments could be transported over land to NASA in the USA. However, the onboard telescope could not be transported without proper air conditioning, due to the hot summer temperatures. This meant the team had to find a way to fly the instrument directly to Japan. But inquires were met with polite regret: the local carriers could not handle such a large cargo by air. The border wall seemed insurmountable. However, after several days of inquires, and harrowing moments where the scheduled pickup seemed to have not been registered by the transportation company, there was success! The telescope flown from Edmonton, and the border successfully crossed.

Memories of Uchinoura by Onoda Junjiro.
When Onoda Junjiro thinks of the Uchinoura Space Center, he thinks of shōchū, a Japanese alcoholic drink made from sweet potatoes. Onoda first tried the local delicacy when he visited Uchinoura as a graduate student around the time of the launch of the M-4S-3 rocket in 1971. Onoda was to work on the structure of the M rockets through six versions, from M-4S-3 to the final M-V; one of the largest all-stage solid propellent rocket in the world. The first launch of the M-V prototype was 12 February 1997. The launch was a success, sending the radio astronomy satellite, HALCA, into orbit. However, on the fourth launch in 2000, the attitude of the M-V rocket became unstable and the X-ray astronomy satellite, ASTRO-E, was lost. After three years of development, the M-V rocket was launched again, and successfully carried the Hayabusa mission into space. For Onoda, this was the last rocket he was directly involved with, having experienced the full circle of the success of a first launch, a failure, and return to flight.

Interview with Toyota Hiroyuki, DESTINY+ Project Team, Test and Operation Technology Group.
Toyota Hiroyuki researches solar cells and batteries (the power system) for use in space. Upon joining ISAS, Toyota worked on the development for the solar cells for Akatsuki and Mio missions. His laboratory was involved in the first demonstration of using photoluminescence for easily identifying abnormalities, such as cracks, in solar cells. With the goal of developing lighter batteries for a future Mars mission, Toyota helped develop the battery for the SLIM lunar lander, which used 0.1mm thin sheets of stainless steel (SUS) for the exterior. The battery proved its worth when SLIM landed at an unexpected angle on the lunar surface, and was unable to initially receive power from the solar cells. Power from the SUS laminate battery successfully transmitted the data to the ground and conducted initial observations. Toyota’s current projects include battery development for low temperatures onboard an ultra-compact Mars lander, and wireless charging technology.

A new edition of JAXA's #ISASNews newsletter has come out, sharing stories from the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science.

We put together short summaries in English! 🛰️ The first story is on results from the analysis of asteroid #Ryugu, brought home by the #Hayabusa2 mission.

And if these are tantalisingly epic, you can wrestle down the full stories (in Japanese) here: https://www.isas.jaxa.jp/outreach/isas_news/

What we learned from the Ryugu grains by Tachibana Shogo, University of Tokyo.
It’s been four years since the Hayabusa2 mission delivered grains from asteroid Ryugu to Earth. Classified as a C-type asteroid, Ryugu was expected to contain water trapped in hydrated minerals as well as organic matter. Their presence would indicate that the asteroid had not experienced wide-spread heating, and so information about the very early Solar System when the asteroid first formed would be preserved. Analysis of the grains revealed the presence of past liquid water in the form of hydrated minerals, carbonates, iron sulphide and magnetite which require reactions with water to form. The carbonates precipitated from the water approximately 4 million years after the birth of the Solar System, making the minerals on Ryugu older than those on Earth!

Immersing the Ryugu grains in solvents and analysing the dissolved compounds has revealed over 20,000 organic species. When liquid water existed on Ryugu shortly after formation, molecules were being built that could become the building blocks for life. Around twenty types of amino acid have been found in the Ryugu grains, which are essential to life on Earth. Many molecules can exist as two mirrored forms, referred to as the “chirality” or “left and right handedness”. But while Earth life uses only left-handed molecules, the chirality of the Ryugu amino acids have been found in roughly equal abundance, suggesting production via non-biological mechanisms. The composition of Ryugu resembles that of the Sun and CI chondrite meteorites. Less than 10 CI chondrites have ever been found on Earth. This can be explained by the fragility of the Ryugu grains, which would disintegrate upon entering the Earth’s atmosphere, never reaching the ground. The CI chondrites that have been discovered are weathered and changed by the Earth’s water. The Ryugu grains are therefore one of the best representations of the chemical composition of our Solar System out of all extraterrestrial samples. Our Astromaterials Science Research Group (ASRG) has therefore started the “Ryugu Reference Project” to determine the chemical composition in detail. (For the full article and references, please refer to ISAS News.)

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