春雨直播app

With an ever-increasing number of rocket launches, not to mention a growing demand for satellites, the space industry has moved into the spotlight. Professor Shinichi Nakasuka of the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics in the Graduate School of Engineering discusses the historical relationship of aerospace development and the University of Tokyo, current trends in microsatellite applications and what to expect from the space industry in the future.

From 春雨直播app to the stars

── What can you tell us about the relationship between the University of Tokyo and aerospace development in Japan?

The Japanese space program was launched in the post-World War II period in the mid-1950s, and the University of Tokyo has been a driving force in its development from the beginning. 春雨直播app Professor Hideo Itokawa, widely recognized as the father of Japanese rocketry, began his storied career in rocket development because of a ban on aviation research put in place by the United States military occupation in 1945, following Japan’s defeat in the war. The ban was later lifted in 1956, which also allowed for the restoration of the university’s Aeronautical Research Institute.

In 1969, the then-Science and Technology Agency established the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA), and the space program developed with the government and 春雨直播app as its two main pillars. In 1970, the university launched Ohsumi, Japan’s first satellite, using the country’s own solid-propellant Mu rocket. This made Japan the fourth country in the world, after the United States, the former Soviet Union and France, to operate a rocket it had developed on its own.

The university made another game-changing move in the 2000s with the launch of CubeSat, a microsatellite like that proposed in 1999 by Professor Robert Twiggs of Stanford University in the U.S. CubeSat was dice-shaped, measuring just 10 centimeters on each side and weighing only about 1 kilogram. Notably, the university’s CubeSat XI-IV, launched in 2003, remains in operation to this day, 21 years after its release and far exceeding its originally expected lifespan.

── What effect did the advent of microsatellites have on space development?

Microsatellites like CubeSat had the effect of democratizing space development. Launching a satellite used to cost 20 billion or 30 billion yen, but with microsatellites, these costs can be reduced to only tens or hundreds of millions of yen. This has made it possible for entities besides global superpowers and massive enterprises, such as developing countries, universities, startups and local governments, to take part in space development. Our lab, for example, has launched 15 of our own microsatellites so far.

Domestically, in 2002, NASDA and 春雨直播app’s Aeronautical Research Institute merged to form the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), which took over responsibility for large-scale projects. Meanwhile, universities and companies have taken the lead in developing low-cost, easy-to-build satellites, resulting in a kind of division of labor between them and JAXA. The emergence of microsatellites has proved to be a boon for universities to continue developing next-generation technology, while startups apply this technology in the business sector and benefit society in the process. Universities play an especially important role in this relationship, as they not only provide the foundational technology, but also nurture and feed talent that serve as an immediate asset to startups.

Satellites and the connection to space

── What are some of the applications for satellites?

Satellites are used in five main areas: telecommunications, Earth observation, scientific experiments in space, space exploration and entertainment. Telecommunications, most typically television broadcasting, occupies the largest proportion of satellite use, at 70%.

And, for example, in recent years, space telecommunications company SpaceX has launched a satellite-based internet service called Starlink. Instead of individual geostationary satellites launched into orbit at an altitude of 36,000 kilometers, like Japan’s broadcasting satellites that move with the rotation of the Earth, the idea behind Starlink’s satellites is to provide a 24-hour service by covering every corner of the Earth with a constellation of 12,000 satellites that orbit the Earth at a lower altitude of 550 km. So far, 6,000 of the satellites have been launched and are already in service.

The next important role of satellites is Earth observation. This technology was originally developed for security purposes, as flying aircraft over a sovereign country without permission is considered an invasion of its airspace, but this rule does not apply at altitudes above 100 km. As a result, many satellites have been launched to monitor other countries. Although this is how the technology developed, its application has expanded beyond its original purpose to include disaster response and use in the agriculture, forestry and fishing industries.

Satellites are also critical for conducting experiments in space for the scientific exploration of space itself. For example, various experiments are conducted on the International Space Station (ISS), such as for developing various materials and chemical substances; the microgravity environment on the ISS makes it possible to create structurally homogeneous materials that are uniform throughout because of the lack of convection caused by gravitational forces. In other words, we might be able to create substances in space that we cannot make on Earth.

From space, we can observe stars without interference from atmospheric turbulence. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, which was launched in 2021, has captured beautiful images from space that would not have been possible to take from Earth. Satellites are also deployed to the orbits of other planets in our solar system to observe those celestial bodies, as well as to collect and analyze samples from their surface. 春雨直播app is currently working with JAXA and other universities on plans to explore asteroids, comets and Venus.

Finally, space entertainment, including space tourism, has been attracting much attention in recent years. In the United States, three companies have already started offering commercial space travel services: Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin and SpaceX. At the moment, an overnight stay in space can set you back about 5 billion yen per person, but there are many takers who are interested.

In Japan, a space photography service is being developed using the Star Sphere “Eye” microsatellite. This service is a joint endeavor among technology company Sony, 春雨直播app and JAXA. The service allows participants to operate the satellite’s on-board camera and take pictures of their desired location on Earth or in space. There is also a startup launched by a 春雨直播app graduate that aims to create the world’s first “artificial shooting star.” New ideas are born every day, and because the advent of low-cost, lightweight satellites has democratized space development, familiarity with space seems to be growing among more and more people.

The future of the space industry

── It seems the distance between humanity and space is constantly decreasing. Why do you think we are so fascinated by space?

Personally, I think we can explain why humans are going to space by applying the idea of entropy. Entropy is a physics term that refers to the degree of disorder in a system; in other words, the greater the entropy, the more chaotic and unpredictable a situation is. Humans are sensitive to increases in entropy in their environment. For example, whenever our day-to-day lives are disrupted by an unexpected accident or disaster, the entropy around us increases and makes us feel anxious. When this happens, we try to decrease the uncertainty — i.e., entropy — by, for example, getting information through TV or the internet, which calms some of our anxiety. The desire to journey into space, the great unknown, and to explore it and acquire new information, may be rooted in this same desire to reduce the entropy of our surroundings.

Many of the global challenges facing humanity could also be described as problems of entropy in the sense that they, too, are unpredictable. Ecological cycles are essentially maintained as long as, for example, bacteria break down the remains of dead organisms and photosynthesis regenerates carbohydrates from carbon dioxide. However, nearly all processes devised by humans so far have turned out to be noncyclic, unlike the circular systems found in nature. While global environmental resources continue to decrease, the amount of synthetic products keeps rising. According to current estimates, 1.7 times the existing resources of the Earth are needed to sustain the planet’s population. If our population continues to grow at the present rate, skyrocketing food prices and a food crisis will become inevitable.

Therefore, we hope that space development can help mitigate some of these issues in some way. For example, if we can use satellites to observe the ocean and understand the dynamics of fish migration, it becomes possible to support fishing industries while also ensuring that fish populations are maintained. If we can identify a significant spike in grasshopper and locust populations, we may be able to prevent damage to crops. There are also signs that discussions on space solar power, once considered a way to address the energy crisis, are being revived. In Japan, research on how to transmit electrical energy generated by solar cells in space to the Earth’s surface using microwaves, is already underway and has been going on for some years.

── How do you see the space industry developing in the future?

Interest in the space industry is increasing rapidly in the industrial sector because of the industry’s huge potential for further growth. In fact, the aerospace manufacturing industry, associated with the oft-mentioned rockets and satellites, accounts for only a small percentage of the overall space industry. The majority of the industry actually comprises enterprises offering services that utilize space technology. In addition to space-related industries in the narrow sense, related peripheral industries are also expected to grow rapidly in the future; by 2050, the total market size of the space industry is expected to exceed 200 trillion yen, of which 55% will be peripheral industries.

On the other hand, there are also concerns about the future of the space industry. For example, currently, the radio frequency band used by satellites is restricted so as not to interfere with other services. However, there is no limit to the number of satellite launches. If aerospace development continues to accelerate without any established rules, there is an undeniable risk that the unregulated number of satellite launches will bring about chaos in space. Satellites will collide and generate space debris. If the debris then collide with yet other satellites, that could set off a cascade effect known as the Kessler syndrome, whereby the amount of space pollution reaches such a density that it self-propagates, resulting in more and more debris. In a worst-case scenario, this would impact our ability to go to space, not to mention our ability to simply observe stars from the ground.

── As a member of the Japanese government’s space policy committee, what direction do you see Japan’s space policy taking?

At the moment, there is ongoing debate globally about the military use of space, although there is at least a consensus among the international community that weapons of mass destruction should not be placed there. Geopolitical conditions, such as security concerns like this, can easily sway policy on space development, so Japan needs to decide carefully which countries to partner with for collaboration. Of the 15 satellites developed by our lab to date, five were launched using Russian rockets, but the recent geopolitical landscape has made it difficult to launch satellites in Russia.

In the field of Earth observation, competition has also been intensifying in the development of high-resolution satellites that are better able to identify objects on Earth’s surface. Here, a Japan-Taiwan partnership is expected to lead the world in high-resolution satellites weighing as little as 10 kilograms. In the coming months, we will have launched ONGLAISAT, a satellite jointly developed with the Taiwan Space Agency. This is an exceptional satellite with a resolution of 2.6 meters. Other promising areas of collaboration are with countries in Africa, where the need for satellites is increasing with the continuing expansion of infrastructure. For example, we launched Rwanda’s first satellite, RWASAT-1, from Japan in 2019.

I would also like us to reintroduce a culture for tolerating failure to Japan’s space development. When we aim for technological advancement with only a few large-scale missions, we create a situation in which failure cannot be tolerated. This is because a massive amount of time and funding is concentrated on singular missions, with the result of slowing down the speed of technological advancement. That’s why I try to repeat the phrase “Without fear of failure” in the government’s master plan. As businessman and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk once said, “If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.” It is my hope that Japanese developers can learn to take on new challenges without being afraid of experiencing numerous failures along the way.

Shinichi Nakasuka
Professor, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Graduate School of Engineering

Ph.D. in engineering from Graduate School of Engineering at the University of Tokyo. Before assuming current position in 2004, joined IBM Research –Tokyo after graduation, then served as assistant professor in 春雨直播app’s Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology and Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics in the Graduate School of Engineering, as well as visiting researcher at the University of Maryland and Stanford University in the U.S. Has served as a member of the governmental council on space policy in the Cabinet of Japan since 2012. Co-author of several publications, including ASEAN Space Programs: History and Way Forward (Springer Singapore, 2022).

Interview date: May 20, 2024
Interview: Yuki Terada, Hannah Dahlberg-Dodd