“It is humbling to see what human ingenuity can do over the years to observe a region around our star where many crucial physical phenomena take place,”—Damien Galano, Proba-3 Project Manager @ESA (full quote in image)

“The formation flying technology achieved by Proba-3 is a monumental step, not only for solar physics but also for significantly expanding the potential of future space-based gravitational wave exploration,”—Izumi Kiwamu, Dept. Space Astronomy & Astrophysics (full quote in image)

“PROBA-3 successfully demonstrated autonomous .precision formation flying, where two spacecraft maintained their.relative position more than 100 m apart with millimetre-level (!)”—Ito Takahiro, Dept. of Space Flight Systems (full quote in image)

“For a long time, the total solar eclipses were the only way to observe the corona because they hide the solar disk,”—Toriumi Shin, Dept. of Solar System Sciences (full quote in image)

What if you could view a solar eclipse for hours more than once a day? This was the achievement of the ESA Proba-3 mission, which allows an incredible study of the Sun but also demonstrates the technology of formation flying with two spacecraft. Hear from our researchers👇🧵.

RT @JAXA_curation: Please note that the application can be submitted in English, however, the final version of the trading card would be on….

RT @JAXA_curation: Call for the names of skills of 10 trading cards of Bennu particles (Due till July 21st) ✨ Your cards could be distribut….

[#CosmosBlog] When the Honeybee Robotics sampler gathered lunar soil, Kris Zacny knew this would be a moment he would never forget. It is a journey that began with a coke can and will take Honeybee Robotics to Phobos with the MMX mission. Read more 🔗:

[Launch/Experiment] Completion of scientific balloon flight B25-01 carrying the verification experiment of an improved cryogenic air sampler 🎈.

[07/05] The approach of Apophis in 2029 became a hot topic at the time of discovery in 2004, but it is only now that mission preparation is hastily underway. However, as planetary defence advances, we will be able to respond promptly in an event of an asteroid threat to the Earth.

In April 2024, JAXA established a team of specialists to focus on the problem of Planetary Defense. Collaborating with the relevant organisations, we will work to develop a response system for predictable disasters such as that caused by an asteroid impact.

To have a constant surveillance of the sky, we must strengthen observation points in the Asia-Pacific Region. We want to promote efforts to boost regional observations centred around the Bisei Spaceguard Center with the Asia-Pacific Asteroid Observation Network (APAON).

The composition, size, and surface of an asteroid cannot be known unless close observations are made. However, it is not feasible to send a Hayabusa probe every time! Japan’s strength is close-up rendezvous observations, but we are also considering ways to utilise smaller probe.

On April 13, 2029 📅, the 340m asteroid Apophis will pass the Earth at a distance of 32,000km. It will not collide with the Earth, but efforts are underway to establish an international observational system to study this rare close approach, and JAXA is considering participation.

Although a city-destroying impact will not occur tomorrow, it certainly can happen in the future. While it is possible to predict the time and location of a collision in advance and evacuate, more proactive measures such as deflection require a greater understanding of asteroids.

Asteroid impacts will cause a major disaster but….・Unlike other natural disasters, the time & location of impact can be predicted. ・The larger the asteroid, the earlier the prediction. There are no asteroids over 1km that will cause a global catastrophe in the next 100 years.

[07/05] 🌏 Although not expected by asteroid observers, there was a rumour that a meteorite might hit on July 5. So in this [07/05] series, we have introduced how we should respond to the danger from asteroids, from space monitoring to Planetary Defense activities 🛡️.

[Launch/Experiment] Completion of scientific balloon flight BS25-05 with the experiment to test the performance of a reentry capsule model with flexible aerodecelerator🎈.

DESTINY+ aims to flyby asteroid Phaethon. In this video, you can see the plan for the orbit leading to the flyby observation, with DESTINY+ sweeping by Phaethon at 23s. The flyby technique, coupled with an Earth swing-by, will allow us to observe different asteroids every year.

[07/05] Now under development at ISAS is the DESTINY+ mission, which will perform flybys of celestial bodies approaching the Earth to observe & obtain information 🔭. The results are valuable for science 🪐, planetary defense 🛡️, and resource exploration!