Latest news with #HiroshiYamakawa
South China Morning Post
5 days ago
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Japan's private lunar lander falls silent while attempting moon touchdown
A private lunar lander from Japan fell silent while descending to the moon with a mini rover on Friday, and its fate was unknown. The Tokyo-based company ispace said its lander dropped out of lunar orbit as planned and everything seemed to be going well. But there was no immediate word on the outcome, following the hour-long descent. As the tension mounted, the company's live stream of the attempted landing came to an abrupt end. More than two hours later, ispace said it had yet to establish communication with the spacecraft and was still working to gain contact. The encore came two years after the company's first moon shot ended in a crash landing, giving rise to the name Resilience for its successor lander. Resilience carried a rover with a shovel to gather lunar dirt as well as a Swedish artist's toy-size red house for placement on the moon's dusty surface. JAXA President Hiroshi Yamakawa speaks standing next to a replica of Resilience, a moon lander built by Japan-based start-up ispace, in Tokyo, Japan, early on Friday. Photo: EPA-EFE Long the province of governments, the moon became a target of private outfits in 2019, with more flops than wins along the way.
Japan Times
17-05-2025
- Business
- Japan Times
Japan remains committed to moon missions as Trump cuts NASA budget, JAXA chief says
Japan is ready to support the United States' lower-cost lunar missions, its space agency chief said on Friday, after the U.S. administration proposed a $6 billion cut to NASA's budget that could upend the Artemis program to return people to the moon. U.S.-led Artemis, established during President Donald Trump's first term and joined by partners including Japan, the European Space Agency (ESA) and Canada, has grown into a multibillion-dollar project aiming to return astronauts to the moon for the first time since 1972. "If the U.S. were considering a better alternative in terms of budget or economics, we must respond to it," Hiroshi Yamakawa, president of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), told a monthly briefing. Trump unveiled his 2026 budget proposal for NASA earlier this month. It would almost halve the agency's space science budget and reshape its exploration programs to focus on Mars with "cost-effective" rockets and spaceships. Japan signed an agreement with NASA last year to include two Japanese astronauts and a Toyota-made rover in future missions to the lunar surface. While Trump ands Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba reaffirmed a partnership on Artemis missions in February, the budget proposal suggested NASA could cancel the Gateway, an internationally planned space station that was due for initial deployment near the moon in the fourth Artemis mission. NASA said Gateway components already built could be repurposed for other missions and "international partners will be invited to join these renewed efforts." JAXA has jointly built a Gateway human habitation module with ESA and intended to use its cargo spacecraft HTV-X to resupply the station. ESA Director-General Josef Aschbacher said in a statement last week that "some questions still remain about the full repercussions" of Trump's budget proposal and ESA was holding follow-up meetings with the U.S. space agency. JAXA's Yamakawa declined to evaluate the NASA budget proposal and said it and the Japanese government would seek dialogues with the U.S. counterparts to keep strengthening mutually beneficial space cooperation. "Even under a name different from 'Gateway,' similar infrastructure is needed for lunar activities, and we continue to provide it," Yamakawa said. Japan could offer resupply capabilities, high-precision landing technology, rover or the lunar water data obtained from an upcoming joint mission with India, to the U.S. and other international partners, he added. The United States and China have become intensifying rivals in space and are courting partner countries and leaning on private companies for their moon exploration, space station and satellite programs. "It's hard to imagine the U.S. would deliberately discard its advantage of having partners with space capabilities above a certain level ... which is one of America's biggest assets in the wake of its rivalry against China," said Kota Umeda, Research Fellow at the Institute of Geoeconomics in Tokyo. "Even if the U.S. were to scale back the Artemis program, they would likely work together with Japan and Europe to find a solution that allows all parties to save face."
The Star
21-04-2025
- Science
- The Star
Arctic sea ice reaches smallest extent in 46 years after unprecedented melting
TOKYO (Bernama-QNA): The extent of polar ice in the Arctic Ocean shrank in the winter of 2025 to its smallest extent since measurements began in 1979. According to the Qatar News Agency on Monday, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced that the maximum extent of the Arctic Ocean's ice cover was the smallest in 2025 in over four decades, renewing the record eight years ago. Scientists at JAXA and the National Institute of Polar Research (NIPR) use a "Shizuku" satellite to monitor the Arctic ice. Measurements show that the ice coverage for this year reached the maximum at 13.79 million square kilometres on Mar. 20, 2025. The figure was 130,000 square kilometres smaller than the previous record in 2017, and the smallest on record based on data available from 1979. A map provided by the report showed that the sea ice extent in 2017 was significantly lower than 2012 levels and the average for the second decade of the 21st century. The 2025 ice extent line was also found to be even smaller than 2017. While 2017's average was lower, the 2025 ice extent was 130,000 square kilometres lower, making it the smallest since 1979. JAXA President Hiroshi Yamakawa said that this is related to climate change, expressing fear that it will affect the weather and marine environment. -- Bernama-QNA
