My look at the news coming out of Japan with topics ranging from science to Japanese culture. Feel free to leave comments. I want to make this place a community.
Well that may sound like the title of a cheesy horror movie, rest assured, it is not. Hayabusa is the name of a satellite that Japan launched on the 9th of May 2003. The goal of the satellite was to go to and make scientific observations of an asteroid named Itokawa. There were many problems with Hayabusa but there were also a lot of firsts and successes. For example, Hayabusa was the first satellite to land and stay on an asteroid's surface, but it also failed to launch its lander. Another thing that is unique about this satellite is the fact that it is coming back home to Earth after it made contact with an asteroid.
There are some people in Japan, I guess it would be the portion that is a lot more geeky than me, that want to really celebrate Hayabusa's return. There are people that are drawing comic strips about the satellite and even companies that are making special Hayabusa sake (Japanese rice wine) to commemorate the occasion. Below you can see one of the comic strips and what the sake looks like. The comic shows the Hayabusa (the girl in yellow...) being thrown off the face of Earth by an H2 rocket (the girl in red...). The sake bottles show an artist's representation of Hayabusa as it looks in real life and if it were an anime girl (gah...). You can see all of that stuff and more at website for the sake company that is making the sake. There is also a little clock near the middle of the page that tells when Hayabusa is suppose to land back on Earth (as of now it is 16 days and 6 hours).
Any way, it is now time for the word of the day. Today's word is 隼(はやぶさ). It is pronounced hayabusa and it means peregrine falcon. I don't know why but I think it is a fitting name for a satellite.
Welcome again to JJNN for February 17th, 2009. Today I will be giving a quick update of Maido 1.
I talked about Maido 1 back on February 12th. This has quickly become my favorite satellite. Well, actually, I guess I don't have a ranking of satellites that I like, but if I did it would be on the top I guess. As I said before, the job of Maido 1 is to gather data about lighting and electric storms.
Well, as it turns out, Maido 1 got it's first real look at lighting over the weekend. In it's orbit Maido 1 caught a glimpse of lighting over Africa and Australia. This detection of lighting was not planned, but it ended up being a good test for the Maido 1's sensors. The person that designed Maido 1's sensors says that the sensors could clearly detect the lighting and everything checked out just fine.
To put a face (?) with the name Maido 1 I included a picture of the satellite below. Enjoy.
Welcome again to JJNN for February 12th, 2009. Today we will be talking about a satellite.
As I talked about on January 23rd there was a a lot of satellites were put into orbit by the successful launch of an H2A rocket from southern Japan. One of those satellites was called Maido 1. The job Maido 1 is suppose to perform is collecting data for the modeling of electric storms, bit it is not quite ready to take data at the moment. So, instead of just letting the satellite orbit without a purpose while it is preparing to gather data, the scientists affixed some cameras to the satellite.
There are actually 2 different types of cameras. The first one is used to take pictures of the Earth and the second one is going to be used to take pictures of the moon and skies. The name of the camera maker is Shikino Hi Tech. It is a very high definition camera and took the following picture.
It is a little hard to figure out what the picture actually shows because of all of the clouds, but that is Japan. You can see Japan's southern islands to the left of the picture. I am a little sad that you can't see where I live because of the clouds, but you get used to clouds when you live where I live. But, what makes this picture amazing in my opionion is that the satellite was 666 km (about 414 miles) above the earth when the picture was taken. I wonder how much that camera cost.
Welcome again to JJNN for Friday January 23rd, 2009. Today we will be talking about the successful launch of the H2A rocket.
Long gone is the time when people gather around their television sets to see the launch of a rocket bound for space. You can't get people away from their TV sets if the rocket is one that is used for war and it is heading for someplace where people live. Of course that makes sense. When there is lives on the line people are always willing watch. When it is just a lot of money and scientific knowledge that is on the line, it is hard to find people that care. I guess this is just the way things are. It has been like that ever since people got used to the idea of people riding rockets to the moon (AKA, people figured out that it is mostly safe). I just hope some day that people get excited by the prospect of gaining knew knowledge. Maybe that will never happen, but I guess I can wish that it will come.
Any way, on to the news. According to this article, Japan launched a rocket today with a payload of 8 small satellites that each have different uses and are all provided by different universities and companies. The name of the rocket they use is the H2A. The H2A rocket is made by the Mitsubishi company and with the latest rocket they are up to number 15. This successful launch is also the 9th successful launch in a row for this type of rocket. The first launch of the H2A took place in 2001. The 6th launch in 2003 was a failure. Rather than go into a lot of specific details about the rocket that can be looked up anywhere I want to show you what one of these launches actually looks like. Enjoy the clip below.
Looks great, doesn't it?
The latest rocket has 8 different satellites. Here is a list of what they are called, who made them and what they should do. The list (as almost all of my lists) is in no specific order.
1) SDS-1: SDS stands for Small Demonstration Satellite. Made by JAXA (think of JAXA as the NASA for Japan). It is going to be used to gain data for a program that studies small satellites.
2) SPRITE-SAT: Made by Tohoku University. This satellite has many different pieces of data taking equipment. It can do things like check the weather in the area of Earth below it and even has a detector for the high energy gamma rays given off by lightning.
3) Maido 1: Made by Astro-Technology SOHLA. This satellite is used to help collect data that could be used later to model electric storms.
4) Ibuki: Made by JAXA. Also know as GOSAT, this satellite is going to be use to monitor the level of CO2 and other greenhouse gasses like methane in the Earth's atmosphere.
5) Kagayaki. Made by Soran. This satellite is being used by the company to help out kids with bad illnesses. They can get their dream of piloting something in space from their hospital bed. It is really touching.
6) ＫＫＳ—１: Made by Tokyo Metropolitan College of Industrial Technology.
7) STARS: Made by Kanagawa University.
8) ＰＲＩＳＭ: Made by Tokyo University.
I could not find a lot of information on the last few because they are used in private research projects. If anyone else find out anything about these satellites please let me know.
Any way, it is now time for the word of the day. Today's word is 打ち上げ(うちあげ). It is pronounced uchiage and means launch. Someday I want to go to one of these rocket launches.
