I have been visiting the "Aircraft Environmental Testing Building" of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) who was assembling the testing aircraft of Mercury probe

Production press conference of movie "Hayabusa / HAYABUSA"Along with normal, it is not open to the publicJAXA (Aerospace Exploration Agency)It was that we had the opportunity to visit the internal research facilities, so we asked you to see the interior under the guidance of Mr. Sakamoto of JAXA Public Relations.

This time I was able to test various performance of rocket inside JAXA Sagamihara campus"Flight environment test building"Measure the intensity of rocket parts and satellite structures etc"Structural Function Test Building"Two.

First of all, the state of the projectile environment test building is as follows.JAXA | Sagamihara Campus

Near the entrance of JAXA,M-V type rocketIt was exhibited. According to Mr. Sakamoto of JAXA public relations, the rocket here is genuine, the launch was canceled and the rocket for the spacecraft used for the ground burning for the experiment was reassembled again and it is exhibited here.




There are two types of rockets, and this M - V rocket has the best size as a rocket using solid fuel and it is said that performance will be ten years ahead of the United States.


Solid fuel rockets, unlike those of liquid fuels, burn fuels in them, so they have to withstand tremendous pressure and at the same time have to clear the contradictory condition that the rocket itself must be light It will not. Steel used for the M - V rocket was originally developed by JAXA and it has several times the strength of ordinary high tensile steel. The thickness is only 5 mm, and it hits a light sound when hit.


This isM - 3 SI I rocketThe full size model of. This is also a rocket with solid fuel all the way.


It seems that it was impossible to think planning exploration using full-stage solid fuel rocket at the time of launch in 1985, but while JAXA is studying solid fuel rocket its performance is M-3SII achieved the world's first "escape of the Earth's gravity zone by a full-stage solid fuel rocket which is difficult to control combustion", and its successor, MV rocket, ranges from No. 1 to No. 7 It is said that 6 machines except Unit 4 have been successfully launched.



We will enter the projectile environment test building.



It is a visit from a passage overlooking the test facilities on the second floor to the first floor. In this test building, two clean rooms are installed, and in fact hereDawnYaIKAROSIt is said that it was assembled.


In the other clean room there was a fuselage for testing the Mercury explorer. A silver-colored aircraft with an octagon in the center of the photo is a spacecraft. It will be launched in 2014 after docking with the aircraft currently under development in Europe, thenSwing byRepeat, in 2020MercuryIt is planned to arrive at. Since Mercury is a severe place of heat, it is structured by vapor-depositing metal on the glassy surface which reflects light almost like a mirror, so that it does not break down even if it is exposed to strong sunlight.


Equipment for simulating the environment in outer space after actually launching artificial satellites, etc. is also available at the aircraft environment test building, which is a facility to test the vacuum environment. In order to simulate the temperature difference between the sun and the shade by putting the satellite in the inside, putting the atmosphere in the inside, in order to simulate the temperature difference between the sun and the shade, it was exposed to intense light imitating sunlight from one direction while cooling the majority with liquid nitrogen, I will test.




In addition to space, if you put on a rocket and flight the spacecraft to the outside of the atmosphere, a very strong load such as vibration, acceleration, acoustics at launch will be applied, so check whether the probe will be damaged by the influence Equipment is also in place.


A machine with a red frame on the left side performs a horizontal vibration test. A spacecraft is placed on this, and it is shaken strongly. A machine with a round table on the gray rectangular frame on the right side, on the contrary, a machine that performs vertical vibration test.


Picture that Hayabusa is undergoing vibration test in the horizontal direction.


Picture of vertical vibration test.


this isMoment of inertiaIt is a device to measure the rotation motion to the spacecraft and measure how much the force is easy to operate.


Next time I will tell you the state of the "structural function test building" which tests the structural strength of rockets and satellites.


I am also studying the mechanism to suck up radiation with sunflowers and rail guns and I have been observing "Structural Function Test Building" of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) - GIGAZINE