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Japan’s ‘little satellite that could,’ 27cm³, launches into space

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Our readers may remember a feature that we did on Japan’s Weathernews (TSE:4825) back in April. The company has made a major business in the area of weather information, and now has offices in 27 cites across 13 countries. Recently the company has been working to develop a sort of ‘polar routing’ service, to help marine traffic navigate icy Arctic waters. To date, they have relied on data from government satellites, but in order to get their service going they need a dedicated satellite. To that end, Japanese startup Axelspace has been enlisted to help with the project, as a company offering micro-satellites whom Weathernews deemed preferable to outsourcing to the government or a large manufacturer. They’ve produced an ultra-compact satellite that is 27 cubic centimeters, and weighs just 10kg. Dubbed the WNISAT–1, the tiny satellite launched today from Yasny Cosmodrome in Russia, piggybacking on top of a Dnepr–1 rocket [1]. According to the Axelspace blog this evening the launch was successful, and the satellite’s signal was successfully received. It is expected to pass over Japan at 20:40 tonight. The device will make 15 orbits of the earth every day, equipped with optical and infrared cameras, which it will use…

wnisat-1
Image: Weathernews

Our readers may remember a feature that we did on Japan’s Weathernews (TSE:4825) back in April. The company has made a major business in the area of weather information, and now has offices in 27 cites across 13 countries.

Recently the company has been working to develop a sort of ‘polar routing’ service, to help marine traffic navigate icy Arctic waters. To date, they have relied on data from government satellites, but in order to get their service going they need a dedicated satellite.

To that end, Japanese startup Axelspace has been enlisted to help with the project, as a company offering micro-satellites whom Weathernews deemed preferable to outsourcing to the government or a large manufacturer. They’ve produced an ultra-compact satellite that is 27 cubic centimeters, and weighs just 10kg. Dubbed the WNISAT–1, the tiny satellite launched today from Yasny Cosmodrome in Russia, piggybacking on top of a Dnepr–1 rocket [1]. According to the Axelspace blog this evening the launch was successful, and the satellite’s signal was successfully received. It is expected to pass over Japan at 20:40 tonight.

Ground control at WN headquarters
Ground control at WN headquarters

The device will make 15 orbits of the earth every day, equipped with optical and infrared cameras, which it will use to take shots covering 500km² of the Arctic Seas ice. These images will be sent back to Weathernews’ own Global Ice Center where they will be analyzed and put to use as part of their polar routing system. It’s expected that the WNISAT–1 will have a lifespan of one to three years.

As a provider of micro-satellites, Axelspace is an interesting company. They’re capable of producing these tiny satellites at a fraction of the cost, also using just a fraction of the development time necessary with conventional satellites. They design their satellites specifically to their customer’s needs as well, which is another competitive advantage.

Amazingly, this is not the only startup to venture into space recently. Back in October we’ve also seen San Francisco-based startup Elysium Space roll out its space burial service here in Japan, following its initial US-launch in August.

[Written with contributions from Tsutoha Izumisawa]


  1. The launch was originally intended to take place back in September, but was postposed until today.  ↩

Talking Japanese robot headed to the moon, set to fly circles around Siri

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Photo by ITmedia The famous humanoid robot Kirobo will fly to the moon on August 4th, setting off from the International Space Station, acting as a partner for Japanese astronaut, Koichi Wakata. At a recent press conference in Tokyo, Kirobo himself commented, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for robots.” The project will attempt to bring the very first human to humanoid conversation into space. The Kirobo Robot Project is operated by Jaxa in collaboration with Rcast (Research Center for Advanced Science Techonology), Robo Garage, Toyota, and Dentsu. Robo Garage is the company owned by Tomotaka Takahashi, the brains behind a wide assortment of robots, including Kirobo. Toyota techonology is present in the robot’s voice recognition and natural language processing. Kirobo, which is 34 cm tall and weighs just a kilogram, and will be launched into space on August 4th on the H-II Transfer Vehicle ‘Kounotori’. The conversation between Kirobo and the astronaut will be streamed upon their arrival in space, and will be recorded throughout the trip. Takahashi of Robo Garage explains: People may say that virtual characters on screen is enough, but it is hard to feel any emotion towards a screen. We’re going back…

kirobo-spacePhoto by ITmedia

The famous humanoid robot Kirobo will fly to the moon on August 4th, setting off from the International Space Station, acting as a partner for Japanese astronaut, Koichi Wakata. At a recent press conference in Tokyo, Kirobo himself commented, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for robots.”

The project will attempt to bring the very first human to humanoid conversation into space. The Kirobo Robot Project is operated by Jaxa in collaboration with Rcast (Research Center for Advanced Science Techonology), Robo Garage, Toyota, and Dentsu. Robo Garage is the company owned by Tomotaka Takahashi, the brains behind a wide assortment of robots, including Kirobo. Toyota techonology is present in the robot’s voice recognition and natural language processing.

Kirobo, which is 34 cm tall and weighs just a kilogram, and will be launched into space on August 4th on the H-II Transfer Vehicle ‘Kounotori’. The conversation between Kirobo and the astronaut will be streamed upon their arrival in space, and will be recorded throughout the trip. Takahashi of Robo Garage explains:

People may say that virtual characters on screen is enough, but it is hard to feel any emotion towards a screen. We’re going back to real, physical objects. There are voice recognition systems like Siri on iOS, but it is not being used as much as expected. People may feel a little hesitant to speak to a square box.

Takahashi dreams of a futuristic society where people and robots co-exist. That would certainly be a giant step for us all.

How a Japanese team is crowdfunding a lunar rover

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This is part of our Crowdfunding in Japan series (RSS). Services like KickStarter have become a global phenomenon with the power to let creative individuals take their ideas to new heights. It’s happening here in Japan too, most notably on Campfire, the country’s answer to Kickstarter. The X Prize Foundation was founded by Peter H. Diamandis with the aim of developing and supporting space exploration [1]. One of participating companies in this competition is the Japanese company White Label Space. This private company independently develops Moon rovers in Japan. White Label Space is shooting for the Google Lunar X Prize, a prize awarded by the X Prize Foundation and sponsored by Google. It began back in 2007, and in order to collect the prize money a team must land a privately-developed unmanned space probe on the surface of the moon while also meeting some other specified criteria. We’re not sure exactly how they plan to get their rover onto the moon, but the professor leading the technology development team, Kazuya Yoshida, has experience in launching satellites into space. So we’re optimistic about their prospects. To fund the development of the company’s miniaturized rovers, White Label Space (WLSJ) launched a fundraising…

campfire-space

This is part of our Crowdfunding in Japan series (RSS). Services like KickStarter have become a global phenomenon with the power to let creative individuals take their ideas to new heights. It’s happening here in Japan too, most notably on Campfire, the country’s answer to Kickstarter.


The X Prize Foundation was founded by Peter H. Diamandis with the aim of developing and supporting space exploration [1]. One of participating companies in this competition is the Japanese company White Label Space. This private company independently develops Moon rovers in Japan.

White Label Space is shooting for the Google Lunar X Prize, a prize awarded by the X Prize Foundation and sponsored by Google. It began back in 2007, and in order to collect the prize money a team must land a privately-developed unmanned space probe on the surface of the moon while also meeting some other specified criteria. We’re not sure exactly how they plan to get their rover onto the moon, but the professor leading the technology development team, Kazuya Yoshida, has experience in launching satellites into space. So we’re optimistic about their prospects.

To fund the development of the company’s miniaturized rovers, White Label Space (WLSJ) launched a fundraising campaign via Campfire to pay for the production cost and testing of its prototype. Having set an initial goal of raising ¥2,000,000 (or about $22,000), they successfully gathered ¥2,301,520 by December 4, 2012.

campfire-space-2


  1. It is supported by many of the internet’s heavy-hitters including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Amazon.com’s Jeff Bezos, Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, as well as the founder of Virgin Group, Richard Branson.  ↩