ISAS of JAXA started its solar system exploration with the mission Sakigake/Suisei, which searched comet/P Halley in 1985. Hiten, an engineering satellite, became the Japanese first lunar orbiter in 1990. Later we sent our Mars explore Nozomi to study the solar wind- Martian ionosphere interaction, but unfortunately we failed to put the spacecraft into the orbit. Our third approach beyond the moon was Hayabusa in 2003 which landed on asteroid Itokawa. It is on the way back to the earth with a sample of the asteroid. Kaguya is the Japanese 2nd lunar orbiter in 2008 and gives us a very high quality science data of the lunar surface which will be used by scientists in world wide.
In 2008 we have discussed the future planetary exploration, which should be done by JAXA, and we selected 4 major scientific objectives for solar system exploration. They are (1) empirical explanation of the origin of the solar system, (2) explanation of the evolution and diversity of planets, (3) explanation of the environment required for life to occur and evolve, and (4) understanding the origins of space plasma processes. To approach these objectives, we will keep our activities in (1) lunar and terrestrial planetary science, (2) primitive bodies, (3) planetary atmosphere, and (4) planetary magnetosphere and solar system plasma physics.
In this talk I will give the road map of Japanese solar system exploration in detail.
Created 2009-03-05 11:12:29 by Rick McGregor Last changed 2009-03-10 14:34:59 by Mats Holmström
