Japanese Earth Resources Satellite Fuyo-1 (JERS-1)
SFU in the space shuttle's cargo bay (Courtesy of NASA)
Q. Which space projects are most memorable for you?
I have been involved in satellite management at Mitsubishi Electric for many years, and there are a few projects I remember very well. One of them is the Japanese Earth Resources Satellite Fuyo-1 (JERS-1), launched in February 1992, for which Mitsubishi Electric was in charge of the satellite systems and sensors. Unfortunately, the Synthetic Aperture Radar antenna (*) did not deploy in orbit for about 50 days after launch. At that time, I was a board member stationed at our Tokyo headquarters, and was in charge of the group that built the instrument. I traveled to the satellite factory every other day to look for a solution. I was asked every day for an explanation of the malfunction - I felt like I was lying on a bed of nails. Nonetheless, for some reason I still strongly believed that the antenna would deploy. Faith or stubbornness, I cannot explain what it was. But anyhow, one morning, I found that the antenna had suddenly deployed. I had tears of joy in my eyes that morning.
I also clearly remember the Space Flyer Unit (SFU). After experiments were completed in space, Astronaut Koichi Wakata, who had flown on the space shuttle in 1996, retrieved SFU by operating the robotic arm. Although the original plan was for SFU to be stowed in the space shuttle and returned to Earth, its solar array had to be abandoned as it failed to fold, and only the satellite body was retrieved. A few months later, SFU was brought back to the Kamakura Works of Mitsubishi Electric, and we counted the number of holes in the spacecraft from space debris impacts. There were almost a hundred holes in total, including several large ones. I still remember this very well. I learned with this spacecraft that a satellite project has many different facets. There are the stages of design, production and launch, and after launch there are still many things to take care of, such as the problem we had with the solar array, which forced us to abandon it. Looking at SFU, which finally made its way back to Earth, I thought about various maneuvers we tried at different times for all conceivable occasions. A project consists of various elements and aspects interacting and linking with others. This is very much what the discipline of systems engineering is all about, and the project gave me a great chance to rethink the importance of this field of study.
(*) Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is a radio frequency sensor on Fuyo-1. Its antenna was designed to be folded at launch, and deployed in orbit.
Q. What are your expectations for JAXA?
I'd like to see JAXA invest its budget in basic development and verification tests for rockets and satellites. If reliability is tested and verified, demand will increase, and business will be established. Then companies will start investing, and not necessarily just driven by profit. When I was the president of Mitsubishi Electric, I believed in the principle that the company should contribute to the nation. Some companies are willing to invest in projects that contribute to society and the nation. I expect JAXA to play a big role in space industrialization. JAXA has just begun to promote industry-academia-government collaboration, and I'd like it to demonstrate the value of such collaboration through concrete accomplishments.
Also, I'd like to see strong support from JAXA for the enactment of a Basic Space Law consisting of three pillars: security, industrialization, and research and development. If the law calls for a governing body for space strategy headed by the Prime Minister, I think that space development will start to receive national attention. And I hope that JAXA, under the supervision of the Prime Minister, will lead Japanese space development.
