Conclusion of Agreement for the Launch of Nano-JASMINE

Olá leitor!

Segundo o que o site japonês “http://www.nao.ac.jp/” do “Nacional Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ)” divulgou em abril, o acordo para o lançamento do nanosatélite “Nano-JASMINE” pelo foguete Cyclone-4 já foi concluído com a ACS e a expectativa é que o mesmo venha ocorrer em agosto de 2011 do Centro de Lançamento de Alcântara (CLA). Abaixo segue a nota em inglês postada no site em 12/04.

Duda Falcão

Conclusion of Agreement for the

Launch of Nano-JASMINE

April 12, 2010

Nano-JASMINE is an astrometry satellite mission using a very small satellite with the weight of 35kg. The aperture size of a primary mirror is 5 cm. Nano-JASMINE is developed mainly by National Astronomical Observatory of Japan(NAOJ), the University of Tokyo, and Kyoto University. Nano-JASMINE will be launched by CYCLONE-4 launch vehicle developed by Yuzhnoye State Design Office　in Ukraine. It is determined that the satellite will be launched in August 2011 from a launch site at Alcantara in Brazil. The launch service is operated by the Alcantara Cyclone Space binational company(ACS). NAOJ and the University of Tokyo made an agreement on the 26th day of February, 2010 with ACS for the launch of the Nano-JASMINE satellite.

Nano-JASMINE, the first astrometry satellite mission in Japan, will make it possible to promote Japanese future space astrometry missions. This satellite is also the second astrometric satellite in the world since the first astrometry satellite, the Hipparcos launched by ESA in 1989. The utilization of a CCD sensor and some developed technologies for small satellites introduced in Nano-JASMINE make it possible to achieve an astrometric accuracy comparable to that achieved by the Hipparcos although the size of Nano-JASMINE is much smaller than that of the Hipparcos. Nano-JASMINE will measure the positions, annual parallaxes, and proper motions of stars brighter than zw = 7.5 with an accuracy of about 3 mas(milliarcsec).

The astrometry catalog will be published in 2014 after 2 years operations of the satellite and the data analysis. The success of this observation will provide us the first astrometry catalog of all the sky using the zw-band(0.6μm -- 1.0μm) Furthermore, combining the Hipparcos catalog with that of Nano-JASMINE will provide us to obtain the proper motions with a ten times higher accuracy than that of the Hipparcos calatog.

Source: Website of the Nacional Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ)

Comentário: Pois é leitor, se tivéssemos a certeza que essa mal engenhada empresa teria condições de sobreviver nesse agressivo mercado de lançamento de satélites, estaríamos aqui comemorando essa conquista da ACS, apesar de que segundo foi divulgado anteriormente, o lançamento deste nanosatélite não terá qualquer custo para a organização japonesa, ou seja, será gratuito. Como o mesmo é um satélite experimental, vale à pena para os japoneses correrem o risco. Vale lembrar leitor que o lançamento deste nanosatélie será feito pelo primeiro e único vôo de qualificação do Cyclone-4.