The moon from the International Space Station. (Credit: NASA)
HOUSTON (NASA PR) — The International Space Station is a stepping stone for NASA’s Artemis program that will land the first woman and next man on the Moon by 2024. As the only place for conducting long-duration research on how living in microgravity affects living organisms, especially humans, as well as testing technologies to allow humans to work at the Moon, the space station serves as a unique asset in the effort establish a sustainable presence at the Moon.
Missions to the Moon will include a combination of time aboard the Gateway, on the lunar surface, and in multiple spacecraft including Orion and the human landing system. The skills and technologies developed to explore the Moon will help build the capabilities needed for future missions to Mars. Here are some of the ways this orbiting laboratory is contributing to the path forward to the Moon and Mars.
TOKYO (JAXA PR) — The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) will host a programming competition involving free-flying robots1 of JAXA and NASA in ISS/Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) known as “Kibo”.
The preliminary round of this competition will be between April and June 2020, with the final round being around September 2020. Starting today (October 11, 2019) until March 19, 2020 (17:00 JST), JAXA is calling for the participation of students in this competition on the following website.
【Entry Qualification2】 Students up to graduate school students in Kibo-ABC member countries including Japan.
The participants will create programs to operate free-flying robots in ISS/Kibo and complete a mission.3 The competition will entail a time requirement and problem-solving ability.
This activity is based on Japan-U.S. cooperation through the Japan-US Open Platform Partnership Program (JP-US OP3). In order for JAXA and NASA to expand Kibo utilization in the Asia-Pacific region, an education program for operating robots and computer programming is being offered to students in Japan and the Asia-Pacific region.
1. An autonomous flying robot intended to support astronauts (by taking photos, etc.)
2, Asian Beneficial Collaboration through Kibo Utilization (Kibo-ABC) is a collaborative program aiming to promote Kibo utilization in the Asia-Pacific region. Prospective participants must submit an application form to the space agency of their Kibo-ABC member country participating in the Kibo Robot Programming Challenge. Kibo-ABC; http://www.aprsaf.org/initiatives/kibo_abc/
3, Participants shall create programs to move the free-flying robot autonomously using the virtual simulator provided by JAXA and NASA.
PARIS (JAXA PR) — Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency has agreed to cooperate with German Aerospace Center (DLR) on the study-phase activities in JAXA’s Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission.
Asteroid Ryugu with north polar boulder (Credit: JAXA, University of Tokyo, Kochi University, Rikkyo University, Nagoya University, Chiba Institute of Technology, Meiji University, University of Aizu and AIST)
TOKYO (JAXA PR) — The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency [JAXA] has agreed to cooperate with Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES) on the study-phase activities in JAXA’s Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission and analysis of Hayabusa2-returned samples.
