Secret missions
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)
is teaming up with one of the country’s major
engineering companies, Mitsubishi Heavy
Industries (MHI), part of the wider Mitsubishi
Group, which has brought the world its
famous array of cars. However, in this case the
Japanese industrial team is looking to create a
more powerful transport vehicle that can take
packages a bit further, and a bit more vertical.
JAXA and MHI are currently in the process of
constructing an expendable, two-stage rocket
that will shepherd cargo to the International
Space Station (ISS) – which it will hopefully do
in 2021. But with the increasing momentum of
NASA’s Artemis mission – the mission that will
return men and bring the first woman to the
surface of the Moon – Japan now wants to ramp
up the capabilities of the H3 rocket in order to
shepherd cargo to the Moon as well.
While Artemis aims to put this new generation
of astronauts on the lunar surface by 2024, JAXA
and MHI are hoping that lunar deliveries will
commence in 2025 or 2026, which will either
put lunar landers straight into orbit around our
celestial neighbour or will deliver important
supplies to a space station in orbit around the
Moon, to be called the ‘Lunar Gateway’.10 JAXA and
mitsubishi’s
H3 ROCKET
11 The UAE’s Hope
Mars Mission
There’s a truly historic
mission commencing
in 2020 that is going
under the radar: the
Hope Mars Mission, also
known as the Emirates
Mars Mission. This
UAE-funded mission is
the first interplanetary
mission by the UAE and
by any Islamic country.
When Hope Mars arrives
at the Red Planet in 2021,
it will also coincide with
the 50th anniversary of
the formation of the UAE.
In terms of science
and engineering, this
mission, a Mars orbiter,
is being built at the
Emirati’s Mohammed bin
Rashid Space Centre, in
collaboration with the
University of Colorado,
University of California,
Berkeley, and Arizona
State University, all in the
US. The spacecraft will
have three state-of-the-
art instruments that will
provide unprecedented
information about the
planet’s weather and
atmospheric history.
This will hopefully
provide some answers
in regards to what Mars’
atmosphere was like
billions of years ago,
what is driving out the
hydrogen and oxygen
from the atmosphere
and how the atmosphere
varies over the course
of a year, season or even
a d ay.Right: The
H3 rocket will
deliver cargo
to the ISS or
beyond to
the MoonRight:
The UAE
announced its
Mars mission
back in
©JAXA July 2014© Mohammed bin Rashid Space CentreJapanese
engineers are aiming
to make H3 ‘the world’s
quietest launch’ by utilising
sound-absorbing walls
and paying close
attention to noise
in testing.The H3 rocket
could launch 11,900
kilograms (26,200
pounds) to the proposed
Lunar Gateway or 28,300
kilograms (62,400
pounds) to low-Earth
orbit.MHI is
developing a set of
inspection protocols
that could narrow the
idle period between
rocket launches to
just 30 days.“The BE-4 engines, surrounded by up to six
booster rockets, will provide the next
generation of space launches”