JAXA (& other Japanese) Launch and Discussion Thread

[tater]

 

[SunlitZelkova]

As I mentioned in the previous post, I will now be posting the pics of JAXA project concept art that was on display at Chofu Aerospace Center outside of Tokyo.

First up is a concept for a Hypersonic Transport (HST). It would be capable of flying from Los Angeles to Tokyo in 2 hours. Cruise speed would be Mach 5.

Here's another view. I wonder if someone will try to make this in KSP 

Next up we have a quiet supersonic aircraft.

Emission-free aircraft. I wonder why I am writing the names again when they are already in the picture...

And finally a compound helicopter.

These are all concepts being pursued by JAXA at this time. Unfortunately, however, JAXA does not have a lavish aviation budget like NASA does and are unable to build any demonstrator aircraft at the moment. Hopefully JAXA's data can at least contribute to improving the work being done at NASA!

We also have some different concepts and proposals for experiments in space debris removal.

I hope you enjoyed!

[SunlitZelkova]

Earth and Moon taken by SLIM’s landing camera.

https://x.com/slim_jaxa/status/1705042659075854484?s=46&t=Jd73T2beq0JLNtwTy1uR5A

 

[tater]

8 min

[tater]

Better feed

booster sep

[tater]

 

 

[tater]

10 hours

[tater]

Stream live, landing in ~1 hour

Here's English version:

 

[Minmus Taster]

Why do they always need to draw them as cute cartoons. It makes me feel worse when something goes wrong 

[Minmus Taster]

Getting a little low on fuel..

Final descent has begun

500 meters, hovering

50 meters, hovering

Attempting touchdown.

CONTACT

Telemetry indicates landing

[Ultimate Steve]

I don't know if the telemetry is accurate, but it appears it tumbled upon landing.

[Minmus Taster]

Possible tumble?

This doesn't look great 

Is it still sending telemetry?

It doesn't seem to have suffered a tank rupture. Unless the screen froze when it made contact.

Program ending, they're waiting for the press conference. This doesn't bode well for the probe.

[Minmus Taster]

With Peregrine just having been destroyed that's possibly two landers gone in a day. Rough times for lunar exploration.

[tater]

Sad if it's a LOM. Stream showed decent props left (43kg), wonder of they can take off and move it?

[Minmus Taster]

5 minutes ago, tater said:

Sad if it's a LOM. Stream showed decent props left (43kg), wonder of they can take off and move it?

Given its odd orientation on the map maybe it could have hit a Boulder?

ITS ALIVE!

 

Someone just spoke something on the broadcast in Japanese, does anyone know what he said?

LEV-1 also seems to be operating

 

[AckSed]

It had an unique landing pattern, so maybe it's on its side?

https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/01/japans-moon-sniper-mission-aims-for-precise-lunar-landing/

Quote

Just 10 feet (3 meters) over its landing site, SLIM will briefly hold in a hover position before shutting off its main engines and using smaller thrusters to rotate itself. This will allow SLIM to drop to the surface on the weight of five crushable landing legs—two under SLIM's upper body, two at the rear, and one extending toward the back of the lander.

"As SLIM descends vertically downwards, it is this back leg that first touches the lunar surface," JAXA said in a mission overview posted before the launch of SLIM. "In the second step, the spacecraft tips forwards, rocking onto the upper support legs before stabilizing on the lunar surface. In a nominal case, the rear support legs do not touch the Moon, but can prevent SLIM from tumbling sideways in the case of a more tricky landing."

 

[Minmus Taster]

1 minute ago, AckSed said:

It had an unique landing pattern, so maybe it's on its side?

https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/01/japans-moon-sniper-mission-aims-for-precise-lunar-landing/

 

If it was on it's side as planned than this wouldn't have happened. It seems it landed and is transmitting data but is in some sort of abnormal position.

[Minmus Taster]

Conference begins at 2:10 JST

[Minmus Taster]

Confirmed: it's landed and is receiving commands. Solar panels aren't receiving power.

LEV-1 is working as expected.  LEV- 2 isn't responding.

[Minmus Taster]

Battery is set to run out in several hours

[SunlitZelkova]

Hakuto-R, SLIM, and Peregrine. I don’t know of such a long string of failures* in lunar exploration since the Ranger program.

The closest thing to it in recent times seems to be the back-to-back failures of Nozomi, Mars Climate Orbiter, and Mars Polar Lander.

Interestingly it’s reversed. 1 Japanese spacecraft and 2 American at Mars, and 2 Japanese spacecraft and 1 American at the Moon.

Fingers crossed for VIPER. It’s integral to South Pole exploration, and it would be a major blow if it failed, especially considering China is launching a sample return mission to there this year.

*Some a partial failures though, I suppose.

[Minmus Taster]

3 hours ago, SunlitZelkova said:

Hakuto-R, SLIM, and Peregrine. I don’t know of such a long string of failures* in lunar exploration since the Ranger program.

The closest thing to it in recent times seems to be the back-to-back failures of Nozomi, Mars Climate Orbiter, and Mars Polar Lander.

Interestingly it’s reversed. 1 Japanese spacecraft and 2 American at Mars, and 2 Japanese spacecraft and 1 American at the Moon.

Fingers crossed for VIPER. It’s integral to South Pole exploration, and it would be a major blow if it failed, especially considering China is launching a sample return mission to there this year.

*Some a partial failures though, I suppose.

Most of the crashes are coming from inexperienced private companies making their moonshots, the only government space agency's loss that comes to mind is Chandrayaan-2 which was a first attempt that nearly worked. SLIM is also a first attempt from JAXA and it even made it to the surface, impressive given it's ambitious design. Expect more crashes in the future before things start to work, think back to landing Falcon 9 but a half-million miles away and more expensive.

That all being said I'm very worried about VIPER given the track record of private companies, I believe the same company that did Peregrine is working on that lander. Hopefully they learn some things from it, losing VIPER would be very sad.

[StrandedonEarth]

Also the Israeli Beresheet moon lander. And then there was the Martian Beagle2, from the UK.

Space is hard. Getting back down from space even more so, wherever you're trying to land...

Edited January 20 by StrandedonEarth

[magnemoe]

18 hours ago, Minmus Taster said:

Most of the crashes are coming from inexperienced private companies making their moonshots, the only government space agency's loss that comes to mind is Chandrayaan-2 which was a first attempt that nearly worked. SLIM is also a first attempt from JAXA and it even made it to the surface, impressive given it's ambitious design. Expect more crashes in the future before things start to work, think back to landing Falcon 9 but a half-million miles away and more expensive.

That all being said I'm very worried about VIPER given the track record of private companies, I believe the same company that did Peregrine is working on that lander. Hopefully they learn some things from it, losing VIPER would be very sad.

It was also an Russian lander who failed. Else I agree with you. And agree design was interesting, together with the landing system using images to guide it self in to an very accurate landing. 
But going for more of an pancake style lander would probably be better. 
Down the line I think we will get permanent satellites around the moon for communication and position, this works for higher orbits not low. 
Now this is something an private company could do to and sell as an service. 

Edited January 20 by magnemoe

[tater]

H# test flight this evening:

Mass simulator and a cubesat.

Um, payload simulator, the mass is real