Not quite as exciting as Thunderbirds are Go but actually very important strategic news for Japan’s space program as Japan’s Space Activities Commission (SAC) recommended the development of the Hayabusa-2 asteroid sample return mission after a key SAC evaluation committee approved of the technical development and mission goals of the project in a report published August 5.
— The following is from something I filed at Space News a little while back. It’s highly significant because we are back where we started as SAC has returned as the de facto regulatory committee with the clout to justify MEXT’s spending programs.
In the 33-page report, the technical subcommittee, which has met three times since July 16, 2010, recommended that Hayabusa-2 be developed and launched before the end of March 2015 In outlining the mission’s goals, the draft report said Hayabusa-2 should visit, land on, deploy a miniature rover on and collect and return a sample of a C-class asteroid, which is considered to contain organic materials that can give clues to the formation of the solar system.
The report’s findings mean that SAC, which has oversight over the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), will August 11 formally recommend development of the new probe as part of its review of JAXA’s space programs, according to Hiroko Takuma, deputy Director of the Space and Aeronautics Policy Division at the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, in an August 5 interview.
Japan’s space budget request is submitted to the Finance Ministry at the end of each August and ratified by Japan’s Diet each following March in time for the fiscal year starting April 1. The budget for Hayabusa-2 is projected to be about 16.4 billion yen (US$190 million), excluding the launch cost of the H-2A, Takuma said.
Hayabusa-2 will be the follow-on mission for the Hayabusa (Falcon) mission, which was the fist space probe to successfully complete a round-trip to an asteroid when it to Earth in June 2010 following an 85-month journey in which it visited and collected dust particles from the near-Earth object 25143 Itokawa.
In a separate report, the same technical subcommittee also recommended development of the next-generation Epsilon solid-rocket that is the successor to the M-V. The 24 meter tall Epsilon, which is being designed by JAXA, is based on the SRB-A solid augment booster used by the H-2A, and will be capable of lifting 1,200 kg into low-Earth orbit at a target cost of 3.8 billion yen per launch, about half the cost of the M-V, according to the subcommittee report.
Following the draft report, SAC will also approve development of the Epsilon rocket on August 11, said Takuma.
- Initial Commentary:
Japan space watchers will already know how critical Epsilon is to not only Japan’s critical need of a small launcher following the GX debacle, but also to MEXT’s SOD initiative (Japan’s ORS) and the ASNARO/ Sasuke programs for Japan’s dual use military space infrastructure.
Epsilon is basically an updated version of the original J-1 missile development program of the early 90s, using exactly the same solid booster technology supplemented by Mu-V know-how. The irony about this ORS/ballistic missile technology demonstrator program is that it actually goes some way to hitting the original objectives as laid out by the STA for this program back in 1997!!