On November 19-20, 2024, Dr. Josef Aschbacher, ESA (European Space Agency) Director General, and his team visited the JAXA Sagamihara Campus and Tsukuba Space Center.
At the Sagamihara Campus, Dr. YAMAKAWA Hiroshi, President of JAXA, introduced the Space Exploration Field, Extraterrestrial Sample Curation Center and MMX (Martian Moons eXploration) Control Room.
At the Tsukuba Space Center, he introduced facilities such as those for space debris removal and human spaceflight technologies. On those occasions, ESA-JAXA inter-agency meetings were held to deepen the cooperative relationship between the agencies. Dr. Aschbacher and Dr. Yamakawa signed the Joint Statements on Next Big Cooperation.

On October 30, JAXA and NASA received the Marshall Green Award by the Japan-America Society of Washington DC. The Marshall Green Award was established to recognize “an individual or a group that has made a sustained and significant contribution to strengthening relations between the United States and Japan, and/or to increasing understanding between the American and Japanese people.” JAXA and NASA were awarded for longstanding cooperation in the aerospace field.

To promote understanding of its research and development efforts in the aviation field, JAXA organizes the JAXA Aviation Symposium 2024 on October 18, 2024, in Tokyo, Japan.

This year’s symposium is being held at Tokyo Big Sight, coinciding with the Japan International Aerospace Exhibition (JA2024), where diverse players from the aviation and aerospace sectors gather from across the globe. The symposium showcases major projects and research activities of the JAXA Aviation Technology Directorate, along with its strategic directions. Presentations include key achievements and progress from the Fourth Medium-to-Long-Term Plan, such as the core-engine technology demonstration project called “En-Core Project,” “Aircraft Digital Transformation Technology,” and “Aviation Systems Research.”

Furthermore, the symposium features two special lectures by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and The Boeing Company. They give presentations on supersonic research and collaboration with JAXA. Following these special lectures, JAXA introduces its supersonic technology research and its new project, currently in the preparation stage, “Re-BooT.”

Additionally, JAXA has an exhibit booth at JA2024. We look forward to welcoming you to both the symposium and the exhibition booth.

Date: October 18(Friday), 2024, 13:00-16:25 (Door open 12:30)
Venue: Reception Hall A, Conference Tower, Tokyo Big Sight
Language: Japanese / English (with simultaneous interpretation)
Details and registration: https://www.aero.jaxa.jp/eng/symposium2024/

APRSAF Space Education for All Working Group (SE4AWG) would like to announce that we are offering three engaging online kids activities this year!

On 20 July 2024, the United Nations Postal Administration (UNPA) issued postage stamps to commemorate International Moon Day. The stamps feature various pictures from lunar missions, including from the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) and LEV-2 (SORA-Q).

July 20 was chosen to honor the anniversary of the first landing by humans on the Moon as part of the Apollo 11 mission, and to raise public awareness about the commitment to sustainable lunar exploration on the part of national and international space programs.

SLIM landed on the lunar surface on January 20, 2024, and established communication with the Earth.

One picture is the image of the lunar surface captured by the SLIM onboard navigation camera after landing, and the other is the image of the lunar surface taken and transmitted by LEV-2 (SORA-Q).

The Transformable Lunar Robot (LEV-2, nicknamed “SORA-Q”) was jointly developed by JAXA, TOMY, Sony Group Corporation and Doshisha University.
LEV-2 was deployed from the SLIM spacecraft together with the Lunar Excursion Vehicle (LEV-1), and successfully conducted activities on the lunar surface. Inter-robot communication between LEV-1 and LEV-2 were accomplished and the telemetry data were sent directly from LEV-1 to the Earth.