The Innovative Satellite Technology Demonstration Program is a series of spacecraft missions for testing technology and ideas put forward by universities and private companies. The program demonstrates various experimental devices and technology in space by providing flight opportunities. It is managed by the

JAXA The is the Japanese national air and space agency. Through the merger of three previously independent organizations, JAXA was formed on 1 October 2003. JAXA is responsible for research, technology development and launch of satellites into orb ...

Research and Development Directorate. According to JAXA, the goal of this program is to test high risk, innovative technology that will lead to the space industry gaining competitiveness in the international field.

Innovative Satellite Technology Demonstration-1

Innovative Satellite Technology Demonstration-1 is the first mission in the Innovative Satellite Technology Demonstration Program. The mission included several spacecraft, the largest being RAPIS-1, along with six smaller satellites. The call for proposals was announced in 2015, and selection results were announced in February 2016. A total of 14 projects were selected; however a proposal by

IHI Corporation , formerly known as , is a Japanese engineering corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan that produces and offers ships, space launch vehicles, aircraft engines, marine diesel engines, gas turbines, gas engines, railway systems, turbochargers ...

, the "Demonstration experiment of a innovative ship information receiving system" was later dropped, making the number of projects reaching space 13. Seven projects will be tested on board the satellite

RAPIS-1 RAPIS-1 (RAPid Innovative payload demonstration Satellite 1) is a satellite launched on 18 January 2019 which for over a year was used to test seven technology demonstration projects. RAPIS-1 was developed and operated by Axelspace Corporation, u ...

, either as parts or components. Three projects are flying as microsatellites, and three more as

CubeSat A CubeSat is a class of miniaturized satellite based around a form factor consisting of cubes. CubeSats have a mass of no more than per unit, and often use commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components for their electronics and structure. CubeSats ...

s. Innovative Satellite Technology Demonstration-1 was successfully launched on 18 January 2019. Payloads flown on the mission were tested in space for a year, and the operational data gained were given to the developers.The Innovative Satellite Technology Demonstration-1 marked the first multi-satellite launch by

Epsilon Epsilon (, ; uppercase , lowercase or lunate ; el, έψιλον) is the fifth letter of the Greek alphabet, corresponding phonetically to a mid front unrounded vowel or . In the system of Greek numerals it also has the value five. It was der ...

launch vehicle.

RAPIS-1

(RAPid Innovative payload demonstration Satellite-1) is a satellite within Innovative Satellite Technology Demonstration-1 that demonstrated selected projects as either parts or components. Of the 13 projects, 7 were demonstrated on board RAPIS-1.

Payload on RAPIS-1

* The NanoBridge based Field Programmable Gate Array (NBFPGA) was developed by

NEC Corporation is a Japanese multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. The company was known as the Nippon Electric Company, Limited, before rebranding in 1983 as NEC. It provides IT and network soluti ...

* High data rate

X-band The X band is the designation for a band of frequencies in the microwave radio region of the electromagnetic spectrum. In some cases, such as in communication engineering, the frequency range of the X band is rather indefinitely set at approxim ...

Transmitter (HXTX) / X-band Middle Gain Antenna (XMGA) was developed by

Keio University , mottoeng = The pen is mightier than the sword , type = Private research coeducational higher education institution , established = 1858 , founder = Yukichi Fukuzawa , endowmen ...

* The Green Propellant Reaction Control System (GPRCS) was developed by

Japan Space Systems The was a Japanese space agency, which was founded by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry in 1986. Unlike NASDA, ISAS, and NAL, it was not included in the JAXA organization, which was founded in 2003. The chairperson is Ichiro Tan ...

* The Space Particle Monitor (SPM) was developed by Japan Space Systems * The Deep Learning Attitude Sensor (DLAS) was developed by

Tokyo Institute of Technology is a national research university located in Greater Tokyo Area, Japan. Tokyo Tech is the largest institution for higher education in Japan dedicated to science and technology, one of first five Designated National University and selected as ...

* The Thin Membrane Solar Array Paddle (TMSAP) was developed by JAXA * Fireant (Miniature Spaceborne GNSS Receiver) was developed by

Chubu University is located in Kasugai, Aichi, Japan. Chubu University was established as the Chubu Institute of Technology in 1964 with the motto "Acta, non Verba" (Actions, not Words), but its institutional history begins with the Nagoya Daichi High School e ...

MicroDragon

MicroDragon is a

microsatellite A microsatellite is a tract of repetitive DNA in which certain DNA motifs (ranging in length from one to six or more base pairs) are repeated, typically 5–50 times. Microsatellites occur at thousands of locations within an organism's genome. ...

proposal submitted by VNSC (Vietnam National Satellite Center).

RISESAT

Rapid International Scientific Experiment Satellite, or RISESAT is a microsatellite developed by

Tohoku University , or is a Japanese national university located in Sendai, Miyagi in the Tōhoku Region, Japan. It is informally referred to as . Established in 1907, it was the third Imperial University in Japan and among the first three Designated National ...

. It is equipped with scientific instruments that were selected on an international scale. The project RISESAT was selected for the Innovative Satellite Technology Demonstration Program to demonstrate highly precise attitude control and high resolution multispectral observation technology. RISESAT's high resolution multispectral camera will be capable of measuring the growth rate and health of crops from space. RISESAT's

remote sensing Remote sensing is the acquisition of information about an object or phenomenon without making physical contact with the object, in contrast to in situ or on-site observation. The term is applied especially to acquiring information about Earth ...

instrument, High Precision Telescope (HPT) utilizes a

liquid crystal tunable filter A liquid crystal tunable filter (LCTF) is an optical filter that uses electronically controlled liquid crystal (LC) elements to transmit a selectable wavelength of light and exclude others. Often, the basic working principle is based on the Lyot f ...

. The project was previously called Hodoyoshi 2.

ALE-1

ALE-1, also known as ALEe, is a microsatellite for demonstrating the creation of artificial shooting stars. Built and operated by ALE Co., Ltd., it is the company's first satellite. ALE-1 is equipped with a DOM2500

deorbit Atmospheric entry is the movement of an object from outer space into and through the gases of an atmosphere of a planet, dwarf planet, or natural satellite. There are two main types of atmospheric entry: ''uncontrolled entry'', such as the entr ...

mechanism manufactured by Nakashimada Engineering Works, Ltd. The DOM2500 is a membrane sail large when deployed, and will be used by ALE-1 to lower its altitude to less than , the optimal altitude to conduct its main mission.

OrigamiSat-1

OrigamiSat-1 (COSPAR 2019-003B, SATCAT 43933) was a 3U

developed by

to demonstrate the deployment of large structures from a small, folded state. After being launched to an altitude of , OrigamiSat-1 was designed to descend down to , where it would deploy a 1-m² membrane. The satellite decayed from orbit on 30 April 2022.

Aoba VELOX-IV

Aoba VELOX-IV is a 2U CubeSat equipped with a low-light camera. It was jointly developed by

Kyushu Institute of Technology is one of the 87 national universities in Japan. Located in Fukuoka Prefecture on the island of Kyushu, it is dedicated to education and research in the fields of science and technology. It is earlier abbreviated to KIT and is now officially a ...

in Japan and

Nanyang Technological University The Nanyang Technological University (NTU) is a national research university in Singapore. It is the second oldest autonomous university in the country and is considered as one of the most prestigious universities in the world by various inte ...

(NTU) of

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

. The pulsed plasma thrusters developed by NTU gives the CubeSat maneuvering capabilities, a necessity for a future lunar mission, as the Moon's irregular gravity field requires orbiters to perform orbit maintenance to extend its mission lifetime. It has a design lifetime of 12 months in low Earth orbit.

NEXUS

NEXUS, short for NExt generation X Unique Satellite is a 1U CubeSat developed by

Nihon University , abbreviated as , is a private university, private research university in Japan. Its predecessor, Nihon Law School (currently the Department of Law), was founded by Yamada Akiyoshi, the Minister of Justice (Japan), Minister of Justice, in 1889. ...

. An

amateur radio satellite An amateur radio satellite is an artificial satellite built and used by amateur radio operators. It forms part of the Amateur-satellite service. These satellites use amateur radio frequency allocations to facilitate communication between amate ...

, it is equipped with a transmitter with half the power consumption and a data transmission rate per second 32 times larger than a traditional amateur radio transmitter. NEXUS will demonstrate

packet radio In digital radio, packet radio is the application of packet switching techniques to digital radio communications. Packet radio uses a packet switching protocol as opposed to circuit switching or message switching protocols to transmit digital dat ...

in space.

Innovative Satellite Technology Demonstration-2

The call for proposals for Innovative Satellite Technology Demonstration-2, the second mission of the program, was announced in July 2018, and selection results were announced in December of the same year. There are nine satellites launching on this mission: the

RAISE-2 RAISE-2 (RApid Innovative payload demonstration SatellitE-2) is a smallsat for technology demonstration, part of the Japanese space agency JAXA's Innovative Satellite Technology Demonstration Program. RAISE-2 was launched on 9 November 2021 as t ...

smallsat, four microsatellites and four CubeSats. The microsatellites HIBARI, Z-Sat and

DRUMS A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

are primarily for engineering tests. TeikyoSat-4, which was additionally selected in 2020, will conduct life science studies. The four CubeSats are ASTERISC, ARICA, NanoDragon and KOSEN-1.

Innovative Satellite Technology Demonstration-3

Proposals for the third mission were selected in May 2020. It is planned to be launched in October 2022.

Innovative Satellite Technology Demonstration-4

The call for proposals for Innovative Satellite Technology Demonstration-4 was released by JAXA on 17 June 2022, and as of September 2022 three

s have been selected.

References

External links

Official website

Innovative Satellite Technology Demonstration-1
- JAXA

MicroDragon Satellite Project

ORIGAMI PROJECT

ALE

AOBA VELOX-IV

{{Japanese space program Technology demonstration satellites JAXA