Seishiro Kibe received the B.S. degree of Aerospace Engineering in 1975, the M.S. degree of Structural Dynamics in 1977, and Doctoral degree of Engineering in 1981, all from Tokyo University. In 1981, he joined the National Aerospace Laboratory, Japan. He was engaged in research on the vibration suppression and control of large space structures, life support technology. In 1985, just after his coming back from one year stay in the United States as a research associate of Virginia Polytechnic Institute & SU, he temporally moved to the Science and Technology Agency of Japanese Government and was engaged in planning Japan’s participation in the International Space Station program.
These about fifteen years he has been devoted to the space debris issues as a leading researcher for Japan’s related activities and played actively as one of the official delegates to the International Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC) and the Science and Technology Subcommittee of UN/COPUOS. Owing to his extensive contribution to the space debris issue, he received the award for exquisite research activity from Minster of Science and Technology Agency in 2000. From 1999 through 2003, he also worked for the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Technology as a full professor and, from 2000 through 2003, was appointed as a committee member of Space Activities Commission.
On the merger of three main space related organizations of Japan in 2003, he moved to the Strategic Planning and Management Department of JAXA as Deputy Director and returned to Institute of Aerospace Technology in JAXA as Advisor to the Director in 2005. Form July 2006, he has been appointed as visiting professor of Asian Institute of Technology and will stay there until July 2009.
JAXA’s Space Debris Related Activities: Mitigation and R&D
National Space Development Agency(NASDA) of Japan, one of the former bodies of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency(JAXA), was the second space faring organization in the world that issued its own Space Debris Mitigation Standard. On the merger of three main space organizations of Japan, NASDA, ISAS and NAL, in 2003, newly established JAXA inherited this standard(NASDA STD-18) as JAXA JMR 003, which covers whole life cycle of space systems including the disposal operation phase. In addition, by the new president directive, established was the cross-organizational group which supervises and promotes all space debris related activities in JAXA, including R&D.
This lecture is intended to introduce the details of above mentioned JAXA’s Space Debris Mitigation Standard(JMR 003), implementing structure of debris mitigation activities in JAXA and comparison with major world wide space faring organizations mitigation standard. Recent activity of the above mentioned cross-organizational group and some of the space debris related R&D focusing on JAXA’s major interest are also to be introduced.