This stunning image shows the launch of the Japanese H-IIA rocket as it carries the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Core Observatory into space. The rocket thundered into the sky at 1:37 p.m. EST on Thursday February 27th and this image was, unsurprisingly
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Something must be done to deal with the estimated 100 million bits of man-made space junk circling the planet, and Japan is taking the lead. But can we do? Shoot it with a laser? Invent Wall-E-like robots to collect it? Nah… let’s just blast a big net into space.
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The Japanese space agency known as JAXA has announced that it has conducted a test of its space cannon that will be used to remotely fire a 4-pound metal projectile into the surface of an asteroid. The space cannon will eventually be mounted inside the Hayabusa-2 space probe that’s scheduled to take off in 2014.
The space probe will eventually rendezvous with an asteroid called 1999JU3 that is in orbit between Earth and Mars. That rendezvous is expected to happen in 2018. Once the space probe gets close enough to the asteroid, the cannon will detach and remotely fire its projectile into the surface of the asteroid.
The goal is not to destroy the asteroid, but to create a small crater that the probe can land beside and then deploy a small Rover to gather samples. The samples will then be carried back to Earth and are expected to return in 2020. The Japanese space agency wants to create the small crater to expose new asteroid material that hasn’t been affected by space weather and heat.
[via Telegraph]
Yesterday the Japanese space agency Jaxa successfully launched the Epsilon rocket, which is carrying a telescope, Sprint-A, for planetary observation. Jaxa was able to complete the launch for about $37 million, half the cost of previous Jaxa rockets and cheap compared to an average $450 million NASA launch.
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Affordable is a relative term, but in the world of rocket science Japan’s recently launched Epsilon qualifies as such. Costing just $37-million (albeit not directly comparable, NASA claims a typical launch costs around $450-million) to send off, Jaxa — Japan’s space agency — rightly considers it a steal. Epsilon launched from the south-west of the country at 2pm local time. Its mission? To deploy a telescope that Jaxa advises will observe our neighboring planets from its position in Earth’s orbit. The cost efficiency is being put down to the rocket’s artificial intelligence, something that slashes the man-power needed from 150 to 8. Let’s just hope the thriftiness wasn’t just to fund that other recent launch.
Filed under: Science
Via: BBC
Source: Jaxa
Don’t get excited about buying the new robots created by Japanese company Dentsu in conjunction with Toyota and the University of Tokyo — they won’t be hitting stores anytime soon. However, do get excited that one of them, namely the white-helmeted droid Kirobo (shown above, left), will actually be launched into orbit as part of a Japan Space Agency mission to the ISS on August 4th. In fact, he and his backup Mirata were endowed with voice recognition, natural language processing, speed synthesis, realistic body language and facial recognition for that very reason. They’ll be participating in the “world’s first conversational experiment” between people and robots in space, while also mixing it up with kids on earth with educational activities. Hopefully, the astronauts won’t give Kirobo any HAL 9000-like control of the station, though the cute ‘bots seem malice-free, saying they “wanted to create a future where humans and robots live together and get along.” Check it out for yourself in the video after the break.
Filed under: Robots, Science, Alt
Source: US News
We recently wrote about a robot named Robi who is a member of the Japanese family.
Now, Dentsu Inc. has announced the names “Kirobo” and “Mirata” for two humanoid communication robots being developed under the KIBO ROBOT PROJECT, a joint research project being carried out in collaboration with the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, the University of Tokyo, ROBO GARAGE Co., Ltd., and Toyota Motor Corporation.
This project is developing a friendly …
Japan’s four-inch FITSAT-1 orbiters were released from Japan’s Kibo laboratory on the ISS last week to (literally) start their world tour, and astronauts aboard the station captured the wee satellites being dwarfed by giant solar arrays and our own blue rock on their way to orbit. Soon they’ll be writing “Hi this is Niwaka Japan” in Morse code using intense flashes of LED light, first to Japan and then across the globe, starting next month. To catch them floating away from the International Space Station’s cozy confines, hit the source.
Visualized: Cubesat micro-orbiters slip into space to flash Earth in Morse code originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Oct 2012 10:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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If you thought cloud writing was cool, then how about a message from space burnt into the night sky? A group of unassuming cubesats recently left the comfort of the ISS and joined Earth’s orbit — among them was FITSAT-1 (aka Niwaka), a four-inch-cubed Japanese satellite covered in high-powered LEDs. Its mission is to broadcast the message “Hi this is Niwaka
While its creator, Professor Takushi Tanaka, has said the Morse broadcast has “no practical aim,” we think it would make a good emergency beacon for natural disasters (or, more worryingly, alien invasions). FITSAT-1 will try and fulfill all requests for appearances, but it can’t control the weather, so you’d better hope for a clear night if it visits your part of the world. If you’re as excited as we are to see it in action, bookmark the source links below, which should be updated with its orbit schedule in the near future. And, even if you don’t speak Japanese, the video after the break will give you an idea of what to expect.
Continue reading Japan’s LED-stacked cubesat will burn Morse code into the heavens
Japan’s LED-stacked cubesat will burn Morse code into the heavens originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Oct 2012 12:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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