The Japanese microgravity science program

Abstract

Japanese activities on International Space Station are as follows ; Development of Japanese Experiment Module (JEM), Development of H-2 Transfer Vehicle, Development of Centrifuge, Operation of JEM, Research and Promotion of Space Utilization, Development of Experimental Apparatus (payloads), Space Experiment, Astronaut Training, Crew Health Care, Safety and Product Assurance and others. Others imply the miscellaneous such as Space Station Integration and Promotion Center (SSIP) maintenance and upgrade, Technical information management, Planning for the future and Public relations. Two Organizations; Office of Space Utilization Systems (OSUS) and Space Utilization Programme (SURP) in National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA), are in charge of executing the above mentioned broad aspects of the ISS Program. SURP carries out the research and OSUA the rest. SURP, led by the Chief Scientist, are composed by science advisers, visiting scholars, invited scientists and engineers (fall time and part time), post doctoral fellows and NASDA personnel. Its operations and steering are so intended that grouping of researchers is flexible and the topics to be carried out are sharply objective-focused and strictly time-limited. SURP has currently four major activities; NASDA strategic research, Promotion of ground-based research, JEM utilization research support and Research onboard the precursor missions. These activities are all assisted by Space Utilization Research Center (SPARC) which is part of OSUS. Four topics: Semiconductors, Marangoni flow, Diffusion measurement and Cell biology, are being carried out as phase C studies of NASDA strategic researches. Research solicitation in microgravity science, life science, observation science and engineering science has seen the substantial progress since its initiation in 1997. It is hoped that grant awardee will be the potential applicants of ISS flight experiments in the future. The flight experiments selected in the past as sciences to fulfill the initial JEM payloads on-orbit validation are inspected periodically by SURP and necessary support is provided to Pls to baseline their experiments. Sciences onboard platforms prior to ISS and NASDA sounding rocket are all evaluated by SURF’ in terms of pre-flight readiness and anticipated post-flight achievement, Space Utilization Research Committee (SURC) has played a major role to guide and make recommendations to SURP since its foundation in October 1996. SURC oversees the research activities of NASDA SURP , especially is delegated to review the flight experiment, proposals of either on JEM/ISS or NASDA sounding rocket and make recommendations to NASDA as to which are appropriate to be flown. Also SURC carries out the periodic review on ground preparation progress status of flight themes. In addition to internal activities as an advisory body, SURC will represent the Japanese science communities at large in the international arena and voice the opinions and views of potential ISS users from Japan. Coordination among, SURP, SURC and SPARC in the respective assignment executions is essential to the success of Japanese : utilization planning onboard ISS. Development of hardware for the pressurized module to fill initial phase JEM utilization (pressurized module) has seen no major problems in the past year. The definition of the payloads for the four JEM EF missions selected by SURC has seen the healthy progress this year.