Japan’s new Epsilon rocket has successfully placed its first payload into orbit.
The competition heats up: Japan’s new Epsilon rocket has successfully placed its first payload into orbit.
Tag: Japan
Having completed its investigation into its scrubbed launch two weeks ago, Japan’s space agency JAXA has announced a September 14 launch date for its new Epsilon rocket.
Having completed its investigation into its scrubbed launch two weeks ago, Japan’s space agency JAXA has announced a September 14 launch date for its new Epsilon rocket.
More details are released about the launch abort of Japan’s new Epsilon rocket earlier this week.
More details are released about the launch abort of Japan’s new Epsilon rocket earlier this week.
It appears a programming error might have caused the scrub of Japan’s new Epsilon rocket launch yesterday.
It appears a programming error might have caused the scrub of Japan’s new Epsilon rocket launch yesterday.
The computer controlling the launch from the ground detected an abnormality in the rocket position but it was later found to be normal. “It may have been an elementary, but not serious, problem, ” said one of the experts, quoted by the Kyodo News agency. An inspection after the canceled launch found no abnormality with the attitude sensors mounted on the rocket or with the computer feeding the data to the ground, according to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).
This is a preliminary report, but sounds credible. The report also suggests that the Japanese are in no immediate hurry to launch but instead want to very carefully investigate the issue first. And as I said yesterday, this is really all good news for this new rocket.
The first launch of Japan’s new Epsilon rocket was scrubbed today at T-19 seconds.
The first launch of Japan’s new Epsilon rocket was scrubbed today at T-19 seconds.
The press releases are very unclear, which is typical for the Japanese. From my perspective, this scrub is hardly a disaster for a new rocket, and is in fact a good sign. Better for the rocket systems to recognize a problem and abort than for it to launch anyway and fail.
Japan’s unveiled its new Epsilon rocket yesterday, scheduled for its first launch next week.
The competition heats up: Japan’s unveiled its new Epsilon rocket yesterday, scheduled for its first launch next week.
Epsilon is a low-cost, high-performance, solid-fuel rocket co-developed by JAXA and IHI AEROSPACE Co.,Ltd. and designed to launch scientific satellites. Epsilon features the world’s first innovative launch system called “Mobile Launch Control” which allows for built-in checks to be conducted autonomously within the rocket’s system. This allows staff to focus on high-level monitoring, making overall performance very smooth. A spokesman joked that it is so easy to control that staff could monitor the rocket on their laptops while at Starbucks.
In the past Japan has not been very good at building cheap and efficient rockets. We shall see how this one does.
Japan’s fourth unmanned cargo freighter to ISS was successfully berthed to the station today.
Japan’s fourth unmanned cargo freighter to ISS was successfully berthed to the station today.
Japan today successfully launched another unmanned cargo freighter to ISS.
Japan today successfully launched its fourth unmanned cargo freighter to ISS.
The rendezvous and berthing is scheduled for August 9. Besides supplies, the HTV-4 carries more equipment for NASA’s robotic refueling demonstration project on ISS.
Forty-three peer-reviewed papers by a Japanese researcher are tainted with falsified or fabricated data, according to a Japanese newspaper report today.
Forty-three peer-reviewed papers by a Japanese researcher are tainted with falsified or fabricated data, according to a Japanese newspaper story today.
There really seems to be a lot of this going around, doesn’ t there?
Japan has decided to develop its first new rocket in two decades and use the private-sector to reduce costs.
The competition heats up: Japan has decided to develop its first new rocket in two decades and use the private-sector to reduce costs.
The article is very vague about how Japan will shift design and construction to the private sector. They need to do this, however, if they want to compete, as their space agency has been very inefficient at accomplishing anything cheaply or quickly.
Japan has announced an August 22 launch date for its new Epsilon rocket.
The competition heats up: Japan has announced an August 22 launch date for its new Epsilon rocket.
Key quote: “Epsilon replaces the M-V, a larger solid-fuel rocket that failed to attract sufficient customers to remain in production. M-V’s last launch was in 2002.” Competition rules!
Japan’s entire space program faces a major overhaul.
Feeling the heat of competition: Japan’s entire space program faces a major overhaul.
In the last few decades Japan has not done very well in space when compared to other Asian countries like China and India. Thus, this overhaul. Yet, based on this article, it doesn’t seem to me that they are making the real changes they need to do to successfully compete. If anything, it sounds instead like the actions of a bureaucracy that is merely rearranging the deck chairs on a sinking ship, in the hope that this will somehow save it.
The radiation from the Fukushima nuclear power plant failure in Japan has turned out to be less of a problem than predicted.
The radiation from the Fukushima nuclear power plant failure in Japan has turned out to be less of a problem than predicted.
[O]utside the immediate area of Fukushima, this is hardly a problem at all. Although the crippled nuclear reactors themselves still pose a danger, no one, including personnel who worked in the buildings, died from radiation exposure. Most experts agree that future health risks from the released radiation, notably radioactive iodine-131 and cesiums-134 and – 137, are extremely small and likely to be undetectable. Even considering the upper boundary of estimated effects, there is unlikely to be any detectable increase in cancers in Japan, Asia or the world except close to the facility, according to a World Health Organization report. There will almost certainly be no increase in birth defects or genetic abnormalities from radiation.
Even in the most contaminated areas, any increase in cancer risk will be small. For example, a male exposed at age 1 has his lifetime cancer risk increase from 43 percent to 44 percent. Those exposed at 10 or 20 face even smaller increases in risk — similar to what comes from having a whole-body computer tomography scan or living for 12 to 25 years in Denver amid background radiation in the Rocky Mountains.
The entire article is worth reading, as it outlines in detail the less than deadly consequences of both Fukushima and Chernobyl. This is the kind of information we should use to rationally decide whether we want to build more nuclear power planets.
A Japanese airline has grounded all of its 787 Dreamliners due following an emergency landing.
Bad news for Boeing: A Japanese airline has grounded all of its 787 Dreamliners due following an emergency landing.
Update: All Dreamliners worldwide have now been grounded pending an investigation.
The Seven Samurai – Kyûzô the Swordsman
An evening pause: A short clip from one of the best films ever made, Akira Kurosawa’s The Seven Samurai (1954).
The Japanese solar sail experiment IKAROS is apparently still alive, years after launch.
The Japanese solar sail experiment IKAROS is apparently still alive, years after launch.
Genki Sudo [World Order] – Aquarius
An evening pause: The music is good, but the dance choreography is fascinatingly original.
While thousands protest the restarting of any nuclear power plants in Japan following last year’s earthquake, some scientists have questions about one particular plant.
While thousands protest the restarting of any nuclear power plants in Japan following last year’s earthquake, some scientists have questions about one particular plant.
The article’s headline falsely suggests that the scientists oppose all nuclear power plants, which is not the case. If anything, the overall manner in which the Fukushima power plant withstood the biggest earthquake in history demonstrated that most of Japan’s nuclear power plants are probably safe from future earthquakes. For scientists to have concerns about one particular plant seems reasonable, however, and is not the same thing as opposing all nuclear power.
Glass jewellery believed to have been made by Roman craftsmen has been found in an ancient tomb in Japan.
Glass jewellery believed to have been made by Roman craftsmen has been found in an ancient tomb in Japan.
The mystery for archeologists and historians now is this: How did this Roman jewelry get there?
Something caused the Earth to bombarded with cosmic rays in 775 AD but scientists have no idea what.
Something caused the Earth to bombarded with cosmic rays in 775 AD but scientists have no idea what.