Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
and engineering communities in Japan, who will have the responsibilities
for the activities in 2025.
Exploration of the solar system and observations of the universe will
be made in cooperation with many academic and research institutions in
Japan and overseas. It is an ultimate goal for JAXA to make Japan to be
one of the topmost space science centers in the world.
3. Vision for Solar System Sciences
We consider the future solar system sciences described in “JAXA Vision”
to be very much a practical expectation, based on our heritage, resource,
and potential capabilities. All activities shall be directed to our final target,
“
Raison d'etre
of the planet(s) with life”, through the studies of:
(a) the future of the Sun and the Earth,
(b) the conditions for habitable planetary system(s),
(c) arrival at the unexplored region of the solar system, and
(d) the universality of solar system(s) in the Cosmos.
3.1.
Phase-1 (2005-2015): ongoing missions and the
missions in preparation
The first 10 years (2005-2015, Phase-1) of the Vision consist of currently
ongoing and approved missions. The main targets of them are the detailed
studies of Sun and Sun-Earth system, the initiation of the surveys of ter-
restrial objects (Moon, Venus, and Mercury), and the first sample return
from an asteroid.
3.1.1.
Sun and Sun-Earth system
Detailed studies for the solar and Sun-Earth system are expected to be
active areas in the context of space weather research and the
in situ
physical
laboratories for energetic plasma processes universally found in the space.
Based on the success of the Yohkoh mission (cf. Ref. 2), Solar-B (a
joint mission with NASA, PPARC, and ESA) will be launched in 2006 (cf.
Ref. 3). Solar-B will, for the first time, provide quantitative measurements
of the full vector magnetic field in suciently small scales to resolve ele-
mental flux tubes. The main objectives are to study (1) the creation and
destruction of the Sun's magnetic field, (2) the modulation of the Sun's
luminosity, (3) the generation of UV and X-ray radiations, and (4) the