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Joris _

Japan plans to send a robot to the moon | The Australian - 1 views

  • the little android's oil bearings and ultrasonic sensors will not work in the lunar vacuum
  • The one-sixth gravity presents problems for stable movement, and Moon dust clogs joints.
  • the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa), the country's space agency. It runs the rockets needed to deliver their robot to the Moon and, so far, has been distinctly cool on the idea.
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    Interesting! I like the quote "Maybe China would allow that to be a one-way trip but, in Japan, it would have to be a return ticket" talking about a human mission ....
Juxi Leitner

Japan Plans a Moon Base by 2020, Built by Robots for Robots | Popular Science - 1 views

  • Those initial surveyor bots will pave the way for the construction of the unmanned moon base near the lunar south pole, which the robots will construct for themselves.
  • Even if Japan falls short of its 2020 deadline, the advances in robotics technology that could fall out of this little project could be as exciting as the moon base itself.
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    More on these Japanese moon base plans... Those initial surveyor bots will pave the way for the construction of the unmanned moon base near the lunar south pole, which the robots will construct for themselves.
Joris _

Japan probe overshoots Venus, heads toward sun - 0 views

  • A Japanese probe to Venus failed to reach orbit Wednesday and was captured by the sun's gravitational pull
  • Akatsuki's engines did not fire long enough to attain the proper orbiting position
  • may be able to try again when it passes by Venus six years from now.
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    The usefulness of having a robust trajectory :) ... They have to wait 6 more years for another date with Venus ...
  • ...2 more comments...
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    I agree in general but just out of the stomach: is there really an optimised trajectory that would be able to avoid this kind of scenarios when main thrusters don't perform properly? Wouldn't you in any case end up in a sun-orbiting trajectory and have to come back after years??
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    "optimised trajectory" of course not, robust definitely! It was the subject of my paper presented at the AAS (the one in San Diego) "Designing robust interplanetary trajectories subject to one temporary engine failure". The problem here is that they do not have enough fuel for a correction maneuver that would allow to come back to Venus earlier, and break for a VOI. A robust scenario could have alloted the best amount of fuel and time to be able to recover from almost all possible unplanned events. In the paper, I introduce some confidence regions such that I get the robust control for p% chance of mission success in case m% chance of problem with the propulsion system.
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    You should run your method on this scenario and see if you could get a trajectory with a shorter come back time using the same spacecraft.... would be a big selling point for a new trajectory design approach
jcunha

Wireless 10 kW power transmission - 1 views

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    Mitsubishi Heavy Industries said Friday that it has succeeded in transmitting 10 kW of power through 500 m. An announcement that comes just after JAXA scientists reported one more breakthrough in the quest for Space Solar Power Systems (http://phys.org/news/2015-03-japan-space-scientists-wireless-energy.html). One step closer to Power Generation from Space/
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    from the press release (https://www.mhi-global.com/news/story/1503121879.html) "10 kilowatts (kW) of power was sent from a transmitting unit by microwave. The reception of power was confirmed at a receiver unit located at a distance of 500 meters (m) away by the illumination of LED lights, using part of power transmitted". So 10kW of transmission to light a few efficient LED lights??? In a 2011 report (https://www.mhi-global.com/company/technology/review/pdf/e484/e484017.pdf), MHI estimated this would generate the same electricity output as a 400-megawatt thermal plant - or enough to serve more than 150,000 homes during peak hours. The price? The same as publicly supplied power, according to its calculations. There are no results to boost these claims however. The main work they do now is focused on beam steering control. I guess the real application in mind is more targeted to terrestrial applications, eg wireless highway charging (http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20120312-wireless-highway-to-charge-cars). With the distances so much shorter, leading to much smaller antenna's and rectenna's this makes much more sense to me to develop.
Marcus Maertens

Giant squid filmed in Pacific depths, Japan scientists report - 2 views

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    First video footage of a giant squid about to released
LeopoldS

Nature News Blog: Russia and Japan aim for the Moon : Nature News Blog - 0 views

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    Ambitious
santecarloni

How To Build A Speech Jamming Gun - Technology Review - 1 views

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    he drone of speakers who won't stop is an inevitable experience at conferences, meetings, cinemas and public libraries.  Today, Kazutaka Kurihara at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Tskuba and Koji Tsukada at Ochanomizu University, both in Japan, present a radical solution: a speech jamming device that forces recalcitrant speakers into submission. 
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    ...must...not...make...the...obvious...ACT...meeting...joke...
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    Unfortunately it won't work when it is most needed .... Read this: "Their tests also identify some curious phenomena. They say the gun is more effective when the delay varies in time and more effective against speech that involves reading aloud than against spontaneous monologue. Sadly, they report that it has no effect on meaningless sound sequences such as "aaaaarghhh".
Daniel Hennes

Japan is planning to build huge floating solar power plants - 4 views

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    Japan has started construction of two floating solar power plants, which will become part of a huge, 60 megawatt floating renewable energy network.
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    They should probably buddy up with the wave energy dudes and create the ultimate reneweable energy plant
Juxi Leitner

SPACE.com -- Solar Sail Spacecraft Steers with Sunlight for First Time - 0 views

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    The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency spacecraft Ikaros now represents the first solar sail to have harnessed sunlight for both attitude control and propulsion, after it first launched May 21 alongside the Venus-bound orbiter Akatsuki.
Joris _

SPACE.com -- Venus Probe's Problems May Cause Japan to Scale Back - 0 views

  • We have to be more conservative to plan our next planetary mission, so it will never fail in any aspect."
  • the probe's initial failure will have a big impact on how JAXA plans future planetary missions
  • hew to more conservative ideas in the near future
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    what a shame! ambition and innovation have not been fairly rewarded ...
  • ...1 more comment...
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    Did you try to run your algorithm on their problem as Dario suggested? I'm very curious!
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    I didn't have time yet. But formulating the failure with a MTBF or a FIT, you can easily imagine a more robust solution. Instead of one single burn, you would make several smaller burns - It will take more time and require more fuel though. Another "robust" approach is to consider weak stability boundary capture. Again it takes time, but chances of failure are lessen.
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    would be a pity indeed!
LeopoldS

Japan eyes solar station in space as new energy source - 1 views

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    new article about Japanese SPS plans ... in general all that is written is actually also true ....
Marcus Maertens

Japan's Hayabusa2 probe makes second touchdown on distant asteroid | The Japan Times - 1 views

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    Collecting space rocks.
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    if a geologist hears you calling them rocks they will curse you collectively. I am in a workshop where some of those are present and I constantly remind myself to call them "minerals".
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    minerals sound much better indeed ... but what is wrong with rocks ? :-)
Alexander Wittig

SS-520 No. 4 Launch Results | ISAS - 3 views

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    At 8:33 a.m., (Japan Standard Time) January 15, 2017, SS-520 No. 4, JAXA's sounding rocket launched from the Uchinoura Space Center. Through SS-520 No. 4 launch, JAXA sought for research and development of launch vehicles and satellites and the launch demonstration of TRICOM-1, its onboard nanosat that weighs about 3 kilograms. The launch was part of Japanese government's program for development of launch vehicles and satellites in public-private partnerships. Long story short: Space-X has the better fireworks
Lionel Jacques

String-theory calculations describe 'birth of the universe' - 0 views

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    Researchers in Japan have developed what may be the first string-theory model with a natural mechanism for explaining why our universe would seem to exist in three spatial dimensions if it actually has six more. According to their model, only three of the nine dimensions started to grow at the beginning of the universe, accounting both for the universe's continuing expansion and for its apparently three-dimensional nature. ... The team has yet to prove that the Standard Model of particle physics will show up in its model,...
H H

Kirobo, the first robotic companion-astronaut, is on its way to the ISS. - 1 views

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    Kirobo, a knee-high talking robot with red boots and a black and white body, has blasted off from Japan for the International Space Station to test how machines can help astronauts with their work.
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    Reminds me of the Robotic Servant from our brainstorm session :)
LeopoldS

Japanese group aims to put humanoid robot on moon by 2015 - 2 views

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    would be nice ...
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