Report of the Visiting Evaluation Committee
Institute of Space and Astronautical Science,
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency

January, 2008

Preface

ISAS became a part of JAXA, the independent administrative agency responsible for space development in Japan, in October 2003 as a result of a restructuring of three space organizations, ISAS,
NASDA and NAL. This has brought a number of changes to ISAS which are still evolving.
As an independent administrative agency, JAXA is evaluated by the independent administrative
agency evaluation committee of the Japanese government every year and at the end of the first
medium-term plan period (October 2003 through March 2008). This medium-term plan of JAXA
requires the basic research of ISAS to be reviewed by an external evaluation committee before theend of the medium-term plan period.
The members of the ISAS Visiting Evaluation Committee were invited by Dr. Hajime Inoue,
Executive Director of ISAS/JAXA, to take responsibility for reviewing ISAS basic research andrelated activities with a view to the long-term future of space science and space engineering inJapan.
As a first step in the review process, ISAS prepared a “Report of ISAS Activities” that wasprovided to the committee, together with other related documents. The committee found the reportwell arranged and helpful. In preparing for the committee meeting, members studied the reportand submitted assessments to ISAS by e-mail.
The Visiting Evaluation Committee meeting was held on October 31 and November 1, 2007, at
the Sagamihara Campus of ISAS/JAXA. All thirteen committee members, eight from Japan, andfive from overseas, attended.
After opening remarks by the Executive Director, the committee members discussed the procedure of the review. Subsequently, senior ISAS members described current research activities,
achievements, future plans, and some statistical data of ISAS, and responded to questions by committee members.
The committee continued its evaluation on the second day and also inspected the facilities at
Sagamihara, although some of committee members had to leave ISAS before the beginning of the
day or during the discussions.
On this second day ISAS also distributed copies of the assessments submitted by committee
members prior to the meeting. In the afternoon, the Executive Summary of the ISAS Visiting
Committee was drafted by the committee members, using comments from Dr. Elachi as a starting
point. It was agreed that final adjustments would be made after the meeting when comments form
the entire Visiting Committee were in hand.
The comments on the Executive summary from committee members were gathered by the endof November and reflected revisions to the original draft compiled by the Co-Chairperson Harwit.
The revised draft was critiqued by the whole committee, was open to comments from the ISAS
senior staff, and was finalized by the committee in English.
The Japanese version was drafted by ISAS staff and represents a translation of the final version written in English. The accuracy of the translation was checked by the Japanese committee
members.
i

As the central organization for space science and engineering in Japan, ISAS has, since its
inception, pursued world-class original research both in science and engineering. Work on truly
interesting space projects is difficult and involves risk. It takes courage to tackle such missions,but unless the necessary risks are responsibly taken the work soon becomes routine and obsolete.
The Visiting Committee has concerns that some of the support that has led to the excellent record
ISAS has compiled over the years is gradually eroding. It is the Visiting Committee’s sincere
hope that ISAS, working with its parent organization JAXA, will find ways to extend its fine past
performance well into the future, with the help of an ISAS staff that has always exhibited pride
and responsibility in carrying out its assigned role.

December, 2007
Chair and Co-Chair of the Review Committee,

Michikata Kono

Martin Harwitii

The Member list of The Visiting Evaluation Committee
Martin Harwit

Professor Emeritus, Cornel University, USA

Sadanori, Okamura

Managing Director, Executive Vice President, The University of Tokyo

Lev Zelenyi

Director, IKI(Space Research Institute of Russian Academy of Science), Russia

Hiroshi, Oya

Professor, Fukui University of Technology
Professor Emeritus, Tohoku University

Hiroko, Nagahara

Professor, The University of Tokyo

Charles Elachi

Director, Jet Propulsion Laboratory of NASA, USA
Vice president of the California Institute of Technology

Elaine S. OranAIAA Journal Chief Editor
Adjunct Professor, University of Michigan, USA
Senior Scientist, Naval Research Laboratory, USA

Robert FarquharCharles A. Lindbergh Chair for Aerospace History
National Air and Space Museum, USA

Yoichi, Hori

Professor, The University of Tokyo

Michikata, Kono

Professor, National Institution for Academic Degrees
and University Evaluation

Shin, Takeuchi

President, Tokyo University of Science

Teruo, Kishi

President, National Institute for Materials Science

Yuichi, Takayanagi

Director, Tamarokuto Science Centeriii

Contents

Executive Summary

・・・・・・・・・・・・1

Comments and Recommendations

・・・・・・・・・・・・3

Comments by the individual members

・・・・・・・・・・・・8

Appendix

・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ 44

Activities of the Visiting Evaluation Committee

・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ 46

iv

Executive Summary

1) General View: The Evaluation Committee is highly impressed by the range and quality ofthe basic research and missions undertaken by ISAS. The scope of space science and engineeringresearch undertaken is very impressive, especially considering the size and budget of ISAS. Japanis clearly a major player in space physics, astrophysics, and more recently planetary science asa result of the work at ISAS. This success owes much to the staff of ISAS, who understand theorganization’s mission well and have worked hard to raise activities of space science and spaceengineering to the highest international levels. The Evaluation Committee hopes that ISAS willcontinue to maintain this great tradition, but notes that the budget of ISAS has not grown in a
decade. ISAS will need to be allotted increasing resources if Japan aspires to remain a major playerin space science and exploration.
2) The Environment of Academic Research — The importance of maintaining a bottomup approach: ISAS should continue to maintain an environment of academic research and freedomof inquiry driven by researchers within its organization and the broad academic community. Thisbottom-up strategy has served ISAS well in the past. This priority should be one of the main
imperatives to pursue.
3) Mission Selection and Implementation Strategy: The committee endorses the bottom up
strategy that ISAS has traditionally pursued in arriving at a selection of suitable space missions.
We recommend that this policy be continued.
4) Predoctoral and Postdoctoral Program: ISAS has a good mix of young and more experienced people, and should be complimented on its program of letting students and postdocs build asmall satellite — INDEX. But it is important to also expand the postdoctoral program that bringsa regular flow of new ideas and will expand Japan’s base for future scientific research in space.
5) Collaboration with Universities in Space Science and Engineering: ISAS is the solespace science agency in Japan. The great expertise built up within ISAS therefore needs to beshared effectively with the system of universities in Japan, in order for ISAS to fulfill the responsibilities it has been assigned by JAXA and the Japanese government. As part of this responsibility,
ISAS should continue its program of on-site education and training of graduate students at ISAS.
6) Change is Challenge — The Merger of ISAS into JAXA: Change is always challenging
and normally resisted. However it is also an opportunity for improvement. ISAS should forge a
strategy to proactively work to capitalize on capabilities available at its sister organizations within
JAXA. These might be tapped for resources such as launch vehicles, operations, data systems, etc.,
while ISAS focuses its efforts on becoming even better in its areas of priority, such as scientificspacecraft and instruments development, mission planning and design, critical technology, science
data analysis, etc.
7) Outreach: The Committee appreciates the public outreach program developed at ISAS. It
recommends that ISAS become even more productive in outreach to the public and government
officials. ISAS must make an effort to point out that the furthering of scientific knowledge andadvances of technology are of national importance for Japan. This is particularly true when it
comes to encouraging young people to study science and engineering, technological payoff, national
and international prestige, and peaceful relationships with other nations. ISAS should expand its
lecture series to the public and at universities.

18) Diversity: It is important for ISAS to increase the diversity of its students and staff. An effort
should be made to recruit more foreign and women scientists and engineers at all levels.
9) International Collaboration: ISAS is a major player in space science, along with NASA and
ESA. Greater efforts should be made to participate in international collaborations both in having
ISAS scientists and instruments fly on other nations’ missions and vice versa, as well as in data
sharing.
10) Risk: ISAS should not shy away from taking risks when the payoff could be high. Space
missions, particularly planetary missions, are both difficult and risky. There should, therefore, be
tolerance for failure as long as the appropriate lessons are always extracted if failure does occur.
ISAS has learned a great deal, and become a much stronger organization by undertaking excellent
Solar System and astrophysics missions, despite the risks that these might entail.
11) JAXA’s Space Exploration Center: JAXA is creating a new Space Exploration Center.
We understand that there are many good reasons for this, but it also may pose problems for the
future of ISAS. If funds and other resources are reduced at ISAS to initiate the new Center, thismay raise the possibility that ISAS will not be able to adequately continue to fulfill its mission.
JAXA will need to make sure that, to succeed in their respective missions, both the Space Exploration Center and ISAS have the critical mass of manpower and budget they require.

2Comments and Recommendations
1. Achievementsa. Overall activities• ISAS is a world-renowned space research organization with an excellent record of scientificand engineering achievements. The overall activities appear to be well coordinated and arevery impressive. This is especially true for an organization with a relatively small budget
and less than 150 permanent research staff, though effective support is provided from science
communities through the inter-university system. The work done in ISAS is at the forefrontof scientific research, and in selected areas, it is definitely leading the way.
• ISAS space programs in the last five years have generally been successfully implemented.
The achievements in Space Science and Space Engineering in this period are reflected in the
bibliographic data.
• ISAS is yielding sufficient results, not only in academic research, but also in developing abase of young scientists and engineers. The fact that these activities are well coordinated isimportant.
• An organization does not have to be large to be a high achiever and have high impact. It canbe smaller, focused, and do high quality work. ISAS maintains this standard.
b. Scientific activities• Scientific work of ISAS is focused on areas where Japan has carved out important niches foritself. ISAS either carries out missions on its own, or cooperates internationally with othercountries as a full partner on ventures that are too expensive for any one nation.
• Observations of magnetospheres, cosmic X-rays and solar X-rays, and cosmic infrared radiations are highly rated internationally. The recent orbital operations at the asteroid Itokawa
were outstanding. Considering the size of ISAS, it has produced a considerable amount ofhigh-level results.
• Research paper productivity is reasonably good. The citation data show the world average inthe corresponding field, and the number of highly cited papers normalized with the numberof researchers is comparable to those of the best five universities in Japan, which indicatesthe high level of scientific activities at ISAS as a Japanese institute.
c. Engineering activities• Engineering efforts underway look to the future to discern technologies and infrastructurethat will have to be in place for anticipated scientific missions to become possible.
• The high level of competence and experience in spacecraft systems and operations has enabledhigh scientific productivity. In particular, the mission to Itokawa was possible due to the rapid
development of a viable ion-propulsion system.
• The staff working in space vehicle technologies have been doing good work with a limited
budget and with limited staffing. Recent successes of the vehicle launched to implement
space projects is indicative of their excellence.
d. Graduate education3• The rigorous training that work on space missions entails will permit graduating students
to join a broad range of industrial organizations, where hands-on experience gained at ISAS
would permit young scientists and engineers to evolve into valued staff members.
• The quality of this education is so high that ISAS should make this educational experienceavailable to foreign students and post-docs.
• ISAS has the responsibility to be the center of education in the field of space science andengineering. It should therefore expand its graduate education system to support a larger
number of excellent and motivated students The ISAS plan of coordination with multiple
universities throughout the country sounds like a good start in this direction.
• Young people working at ISAS now are all active and their numbers are growing. In order tokeep them active and interested, and to let them broaden their research fields, future visionsof ISAS must be attractive and very clear to them.
e. General education and public outreach• It is important to maintain outreach and education programs enthusiastically and carefully.
ISAS is making an effort to do this.
• Outreach by ISAS is producing significant results in general education and may be one of thebest public outreach programs in Japan related to space technologies. ISAS is trying manydifferent approaches, and they are sometimes regarded as models of scientific public-outreachactivities. For example, activities such as Open House, Lectures, and Schooling are evaluatedhighly by people pursuing science education in Japan.
• The outreach activities of ISAS are highly rated compared to the size of the organization.

2. Academic research and space projects
a. Are space projects generating significant academical results?
• Work being pursued at ISAS has a strong influence on academic research in broad areas ofscience and engineering. The space projects being carried out in Japan are yielding a richinfusion of scientific and engineering results. Japanese space projects have strong influenceon space research world-wide, not only within Japan.
• Excellent results have been obtained in various fields of space science. Particularly noteworthy
are ISAS contributions in the fields of X-ray, infrared, and radio astronomy. Solar space
physics and space plasma physics also have superb records of achievement. The failure of
the Nozomi was more than offset by the spectacular success of the Hayabusa mission to
the primitive body, Itokawa. On the engineering side, ISAS has demonstrated that it has
world-class capabilities in the fields of mission and trajectory design, deep-space navigation,and interplanetary mission operations. There are outstanding achievements in spacecraft
design in the areas of attitude control systems, propulsion, and data handling. Results frommicrogravity space projects are influencing science in a variety of fields.
• ISAS projects are generating significant academic results.
b. Is academic research directed towards the important space science and engineering
missions of the future?
• The long-term goals currently being pursued at ISAS, both in science and engineering, arewell-conceived and aimed at solving problems that are broadly agreed to be of importance. In
astronomy, the X-ray, infrared, and radio missions being planned are of great interest to the4international astronomical community. On the engineering side, progress made at ISAS in thedesign and deployment of space sails, the development of other more economical propulsion
schemes, and research on more efficient solar panels is being watched with great interest. Allof these ventures attest to a healthy plan for the future, and a significant participation infurthering international efforts at novel engineering approaches to important efforts in space.
• Future ISAS space missions aim at future important science, and are planned based on current
scientific achievements.
c. Are space projects and academic research conducted with sufficient international
collaborations? Is ISAS taking significant roles in the international space scienceand engineering development?
• ISAS has a record of successful international collaborations in which ISAS has played significant roles. A long-standing partnership between the United States and Japan on X-ray
astronomy missions, most recently on Suzaku, has yielded rich results over the years andis promising to continue doing so. Excellent sensors were provided by foreign partners for
Yohkoh and Hinode for solar physics. European colleagues have recently announced a preliminary study of contributions they could make to the planned Japanese mission SPICA, which
is of interest also to South Korea and many researchers in the United States. The resultsof the first Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) radio mission in space, HALCA, haveraised interest in following up with another Japanese-led international mission Astro-G.
• Geotail, which is part of NASA’s ISTP Program, is one of the outstanding missions in spaceplasma physics in which ISAS is playing a significant role. Excellent international collaborations are ongoing or planned, such as the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter with ESA’s Bepi
Colombo Project, the Laplace Jupiter probe, and Scope, and ISAS will take significant rolesin these.
• Many of the research topics being pursued by the microgravity science group have been
conducted through international collaboration. Some projects will be implemented using
facilities in other agencies as international projects.

3. The important features of ISAS
a. Conducting academic and basic research, space projects, and graduate educationin one institute.
• ISAS has developed a unique and highly successful system for combining these types of workin one institution. It should be nurtured.
• No national space agency can — or should perhaps even try to — launch demanding space
missions and simultaneously engage in the type of academic work required of graduate students. ISAS has recognized that it can pursue both research and graduate education only bycooperating with leading research universities.
• The total number of permanent members of the research staff (146) may be enough for sixteen
sections, but the number of supporting staff of technicians (80) and postdoctoral fellows (24)
is not adequate for conducting leading-edge research and missions in various research areas.
b. Inter-university system in basic research and mission implementation• The current system is important and has played an important role in extending the size ofthe community in Japan. It should be maintained, nurtured, and improved in the future.

5• In the present system, university staff members join a project as individuals, where there are
no rewards and their accomplishments are not well recognized by the universities except forscientific outcome. This must be changed to a system based on an institution-to-institution
contract.
c. Bottom-up system for the mission selection• This is important and there should always be a significant amount this type of project initiation in any high-level research organization.
• ISAS pursues a bottom-up system for mission selection that is only occasionally overruled
when extremely large international collaborations, such as the collaborative efforts on theInternational Space Station, come under consideration. The rigorous bottom-up process
more generally in place ensures that only the very best projects are selected, and these arechosen only when they have developed to a state of readiness that assures a high probabilityof success.
• There are concerns that the process is controlled too much by a few committees. Innovative
mission concepts may not be studied in enough detail, committee work might take up toomuch time, or the decision might be made without considering the feasibility and strategy of
the research field.
• It is important to watch mission implementation under the bottom-up system which selectedmission.
d. Close cooperation between space science and space engineering• It takes equal contributions from scientists and engineers to achieve science results. Fortunately at ISAS, scientists and engineers have always had a productive working relationship.
• There have been many essential engineering efforts, particularly in support of ISAS Solar
System research. Visits to asteroids, comets and planets and their magnetospheres all benefit
from ongoing research on more efficient chemical and electric propulsion.
• Researchers in space engineering at ISAS must pursue not only leading-edge space projects
but also leading-edge engineering research in basic science. The requirements of space science
missions can be used to generate new insights in engineering. Engineers at ISAS can takeadvantage of their location where new space missions are developed.

4. The merger to JAXA with NASDA and NAL• The merger of ISAS with NASDA and NAL in October 2003 brought a number of changes
to ISAS, and the situation is still evolving. The statistical figures cited in the “Reportof ISAS/JAXA Activities (October 2007),” suggest that little has changed in these four
years. However, almost every ISAS staff member who gave an oral report to the Evaluation
Committee appeared greatly distressed by the changes that have taken place. They feel that
ISAS is losing its traditional bottom-up approach to science and engineering, and approachin which many good ideas come up from the working level and compete for the attentionof and acceptance by the leadership at the top. This is at variance with JAXA’s top-down
approach, where staff at the bottom of the organization is told what to do by leadership at
the top. These two approaches are both understandable. Other parts of JAXA and ISAS
have different responsibilities to the Japanese establishment, and these responsibilities require
quite different approaches if they are to work well. It is time now, four years after the mergerof NASDA, ISAS and NAL, for the JAXA staff, at every level in all parts of the organization,
to resolve this issue in a diplomatic fashion. Any delay in this will not be helpful.
6• Now ISAS has a much more extensive job than it had before: it must not only maintain a highlevel of activity in science and engineering research, and a high profile in international scienceand engineering research, but it must now coordinate its activities with a broader agency that
could have quite different objectives. In one way, this gives ISAS the opportunity to extend
its research and take on even larger projects. In another sense, it can dilute its activities andthis would not be good. This will take work to establish and maintain good relations andcoordinate the ISAS work with the JAXA framework.
• The present attitude within ISAS is to maintain the good qualities of the previous ISAS
structure, and there is no very clear plan to take advantage of the merger. The ISAS systemshould be maintained in the future. Some parts of the institution, however, will likely be able
to merge with other institutions of JAXA, and the remaining parts of the institution should
expand. It is important to spread the “ISAS style” and “ISAS atmosphere” in all JAXA.
• ISAS must maintain its uniqueness and basic research. The relation between engineeringresearch at ISAS and R&D in other parts of JAXA is somewhat similar to the relation between
the advanced development and product development in car companies. The important issue
is to balance two different types of developments. Those companies which do not have theirown technologies but depend on others always become weak and disappear. In JAXA, most“product development” may be done by other institutions. ISAS should continue engineeringresearch to be prepared for future requirements and educating personnel, and JAXA musttolerate the type of risks that arise at the leading edge of research and technology.

5. Other comments• The balance between large projects in exploration, as driven by JAXA, and small projects
for research, which is more in the ISAS tradition, is delicate and both need to be maintained.
• One potentially alarming factor is that the budget does not seem to have changed significantly.
In fact, it seems to have decreased somewhat recently. This is not a good trend. It is possiblethat there is more budget than apparent through ISAS collaborations with other institutions,but at a time like this, with even more responsibilities on its shoulders, ISAS needs a clear
increase in resources.
• In evaluating a research institute from the international standard, the level of internationalization of the institute is one of the important items. ISAS carries out large projects throughinternational collaboration, but the number of foreign permanent staff and postdoctoral fellows is too small according to international standard. ISAS needs to increase foreign staff
members.
• Lunar-A was canceled 16 years after the approval in 1991. Although the cancellation of the
project was evaluated by the Space Activities Committee of the government, ISAS is recommended to re-analyze the project from the mission selection to the mission implementation,
to reflect it as lessons learned in future projects.
• The new “Space Exploration Center” is a fine idea as long as it complements ISAS spacescience activities and does not replace them. It is essential for JAXA to make sure that boththe Space Exploration Center and ISAS have the critical mass of resources they require inorder to succeed in their respective missions.
• ISAS should keep track of former students who studied at ISAS. Such statistical data must
be updated continuously.

7

Comments by the individual members

Comments by
Martin Harwit

・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ 10

Sadanori, Okamura

・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ 14

Lev Zelenyi

・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ 15

Hiroshi, Oya

・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ 18

Hiroko, Nagahara・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ 24

Charles Elachi

・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ 26

Elaine S. Oran・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ 27

Robert Farquhar・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ 30

Yoichi, Hori

・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ 33

Michikata, Kono

・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ 37

Shin, Takeuchi

・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ 38

Yuichi, Takayanagi・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ 42

8

Evaluation Items(1) Has ISAS yielded sufficient results so far?
a. Overall activities(just rating S A B C and/or comments)b. Scientific activities
SABC
c. Engineering activities
SABC
d. Graduate education
SABC
e. General education and public outreachSABC(2) The academic research and space projecta. Space projects are generating significant results in academic research?
SABC
b. Academic researches are aimed at future important space science/engineering missions?
SABC
c. Are space projects and academic research conducted with sufficient international collaborations?
Is ISAS taking significant roles in the international space science and engineering development?
SABC(3) How do you evaluate the following important features of ISAS?
Those features were highly recommended to keep by the visiting evaluation committee in 2001.
ISAS considers it important to keep and enhance those features.
a. Conducting academic/basic research, space projects, and graduate education in one institute.
b. Autonomy of researchers
i. Selection of research topics
ii. Inter-university system and bottom-up system for the mission selection
c. Close cooperation between space science and space engineering(4) How do you evaluate influence of the merger with NASDA and NAL?
Could you give us suggestions how we should proceed in this aspect?
(5) Other comments

9Comments by Martin Harwit
1. Has ISAS yielded sufficient results so far?
A meaningful evaluation can be given only in comparison to the results obtained by othernations. In this context:
a. Overall activities
The overall activities appear to be well coordinated at ISAS. The following points support
this conclusion.
(S).
b. Scientific activities
Scientific work is focused on areas where Japan has carved out important niches for itself,
in which it either carries out missions on its own, or cooperates internationally with othercountries as a full partner on ventures that are too expensive for any one nation.
(S).
c. Engineering activities
Engineering efforts underway look into the future to discern technologies and infrastructurethat will have to be in place for anticipated scientific missions to become possible. Good examples are work on higher-bandwidth telemetry systems that will be required for downloading
data from the many space missions with rapidly escalating data gathering capabilities that
now are being planned. Another example is the long-term ongoing work to design and lifetest cryomotors that will endow space missions with longer lifetimes in space than a massive
reservoir of liquid helium will provide.
(S).
d. Graduate education
The number of graduate students being trained appears to be appropriate. The number ismuch larger than could be absorbed by ISAS itself. But the rigorous training that workon space missions entails will permit graduating students to join a broad range of industrialorganizations, where the hands-on experience gained at ISAS will permit young scientists andengineers to evolve into valued staff members. The quality of this education is so high, that
ISAS should make available this educational experience also to foreign students or post-docs.
(S).
e. General education and public outreachThe results of efforts in general education and public outreach are unusually difficult tomeasure. School children and interested adults are exposed to many competing influences.
Rarely will one organization be able to clearly demonstrate its own accomplishments andcontributions. But it is important to maintain this effort both with enthusiasm and withthoughtful preparation, and ISAS is clearly doing this. This is as much as any organizationthat has many other urgent responsibilities can be expected to do.
(A).

2. The academic research and space projects
a. Space projects are generating significant results in academic research?
Work being pursued at ISAS undoubtedly has a strong influence on academic research inbroad areas of science and engineering. The space projects being carried out in Japan are
yielding a rich infusion of scientific and engineering results. Japanese space projects have astrong influence on space research world-wide, not only within Japan. ISAS should not expect10

itself to carry out the same functions that a university does. The great strength of ISAS is
the organization’s ability to provide students the best apprenticeship available to help themattain strength as independent space researchers.
(S).
b. Academic researches are aimed at future important space science/engineering missions?
c. Are space projects and academic research conducted with sufficient international
collaborations?
Is ISAS taking significant roles in the international spacescience and engineering development?
b. and c. The long-term goals currently being pursued at ISAS, both in science and engineering are well-conceived and aimed at solving problems that are broadly agreed to be ofimportance. In astronomy, the X-ray, infrared and radio missions being planned are of greatinterest to the international astronomical community. A long-standing partnership between
the United States and Japan on X-ray missions, most recently on Suzaku (ASTRO-E2), has
yielded rich results over the years and is promising to continue doing so. European colleagues
have successfully participated on the Japanese infrared astronomical space observatory Akari(ASTRO-F) and have recently announced a preliminary study of contributions they could
make to the planned Japanese mission SPICA, which is of interest also to South Korea andmany researchers in the United States. The results of the first Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) radio mission in space, Halca (VSOP ), have raised interest in following up
with another Japanese-led international mission ASTRO-G (VSOP-2 ). On the engineeringside, progress made at ISAS in the design and deployment of space sails, the developmentof other more economical propulsion schemes, and research on more efficient solar panels is
being watched with great interest. All of these ventures attest to a healthy plan for the
future, and a significant participation in furthering international efforts at novel engineering
approaches to important efforts in space.
(S).

3. How do you evaluate the following important features of ISAS?
a. Conducting academic research, space projects, and graduate education in one institute.
b. Inter-university systema. and b. ISAS has shown itself adept at conducting academic research, space projects, andgraduate education, in one institute. No national space agency can — or should perhaps
even try to — launch demanding space missions requiring meticulous attention to detail,while also engaging in the kind of broad academic thought to which graduate students at
leading academic institutions should be exposed. ISAS has recognized that it can pursue
both research and graduate education only by effectively cooperating with leading research
universities. It has done this with great skill by affiliating itself not only with the Universityof Tokyo, which has always had an important role in ISAS activities, but also with Kyoto andNagoya Universities, the Tokyo Institute of Technology and many other academic institutionsin Japan. On the European Space Agency’s Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) mission, where
Japan was a participant, leading researchers at ISAS, the University of Tokyo, and Nagoya
University made important findings. This collaboration has extended to the current Japaneseled Akari infrared mission, where again the cooperation with leading research universities inJapan has been central. In addition, ISAS has joined forces with the National Astronomical
Observatory of Japan on three successful solar physics satellite projects, Hinotori, Yohkoh and11

Hinode producing increasingly incisive X-ray images of the Sun. As part of this collaboration
rocket and balloon launches have also been carried out.
(S).
c. Bottom-up system for the mission selection
ISAS pursues a bottom-up system for mission selection that is only occasionally overruled
where extremely large international collaborations, such as the collaborative efforts on theInternational Space Station, come under consideration. The rigorous bottom-up process
more generally in place ensures that only the very best projects are selected, and are chosen
only when they have developed to a state of readiness that assures high probability of success.
Many of the missions actively competing for selection have been waiting in line for many years.
During those years, ISAS has provided support to permit each of the competing missions tomature to a point where risks are minimized. On rare occasions, a mission that has long beena serious contender for launch has been abandoned, as happened with the Lunar-A mission
when it no longer appeared viable. Cancellations like this are always difficult; but it is a signof the strength of ISAS that they can be taken where necessary in order to maximize andmaintain the overall health of the Institute’s programs. Four years after the merger of ISAS,
NAL and NASDA into JAXA, the ISAS staff still appears to have difficulty in accepting thatsome decisions have to be made top-down. A set of negotiations should be initiated between
ISAS and JAXA leadership, which also extends down to the level of scientists and engineers,
so that a rational resolution to the top-down/bottom-up problem may be reached, and thateveryone in the two organizations can accept this as necessary, reasonable, and efficient. Thisdebate has gone on for too long and should be quickly settled so that smoothly coordinatedefforts can best proceed.
(B).
d. Cooperation between space science and space engineering
Some of the cooperative efforts between space science and space engineering have alreadybeen mentioned. But there have been many other essential engineering efforts, particularly insupport of ISAS Solar System research. Visits to asteroids, comets and planets and their magnetospheres all benefit from ongoing research on more efficient chemical and electric propulsion. Electric propulsion was the key to success of the Hayabusa asteroid explorer, whose
rendezvous with asteroid Itokawa in 2005 was a major success, after a two year flight during
which the spacecraft distance from the Sun ranged from 0.86 to 1.7 AU. Space robotics, penetrator technologies, and reentry engineering studies in support of Solar System exploration
are other key technologies being developed that promise great future gains.
(S).

4. The merger of ISAS with NASDA and NAL?
Could you give us suggestions how we should proceed in this aspect?
The merger of ISAS with NASDA and NAL in October 2003 has brought a number of changes
to ISAS which are still evolving. A first impression gained from statistical figures cited in the‘Report of ISAS/JAXA Activities (October 2007)’, suggests that little has changed in thesefour years:
・ The number of graduate students at ISAS has increased by about 20% to a level of roughly
225, since the merger, primarily through additional students coming from Inter-partnership
Universities and the Graduate University of Advanced Studies, both of which first joined in
2003.
・ The permanent research staff level has increased by about 10% to a current level of 146, thenumber of post-docs has roughly doubled to a level of 24 over the same interval, while theadministrative staff has declined from an average of about 65 before the merger to 42 today.

12・ The number of papers published each year on the Web of Science, WOS (Fig. 3.1 of theReport) has remained nearly constant since 1999.
・ The average funding of ISAS has also been fairly constant, at a level of about 23 billion Yenover the years 2004 to 2007, comparable to funding between 2000 and 2003, but significantly
lower than funding available in 1998 and 1999, when ISAS was funded at a level of 30 billion
Yen.
・ Taken together, these figures suggest that the performance of ISAS has been fairly steadysince before the merger.

However, almost every ISAS staff member who gave an oral report to the Evaluation Committee appeared greatly distressed by the changes that have taken place. In the new relationshipof ISAS within JAXA, they feel that ISAS is losing its traditional bottom-up approach toscience and engineering, where good ideas come up from the working level and compete forthe attention of and acceptance by the leadership at the top. This is at variance with JAXA’s
top-down approach, where staff at the bottom of the organization is told what to do by leadership at the top.
These two approaches both are understandable. JAXA and ISAS have different responsibilities to the Japanese establishment, and these responsibilities require quite different approaches if they are to work well. It is high time now, four years after the merger of NASDA,
ISAS and NAL, for the JAXA and ISAS staffs, at every level in the two organizations, to sit
down and settle this issue in a diplomatic fashion. Any delay in this will not be helpful.
(B).
One more potential organizational difficulty should be mentioned. JAXA is creating a newSpace Exploration Center. Presumably this has many good reasons, but it also may pose
problems for the future of ISAS. If funds and other resources are taken away from ISAS toinitiate the new Center, this may raise the possibility that ISAS will not be able to adequately
continue to fulfil its mission. It is essential for JAXA to make sure that both the Space
Exploration Center and ISAS will have the critical mass they require in order to succeed intheir respective missions.
(B).

13

Comments by Sadanori Okamura
1. Has ISAS yielded sufficient results so far?
a. Overall activities
S
b. Scientific activities
Sc. Engineering activities
S
d. Graduate education
Ae. General education and public outreachA

2. The academic research and space projects
a. Space projects are generating significant results in academic research?
Sb. Academic researches are aimed at future important space science/engineering missions?
Ac. Are space projects and academic research conducted with sufficient international
collaborations?
Is ISAS taking significant roles in the international spacescience and engineering development?
A

3. How do you evaluate the following important features of ISAS?
a. Conducting academic research, space projects, and graduate education in one institute.
Ab. Inter-university system in basic research and mission implementation.
Sc. Bottom-up system for the mission selectionSd. Cooperation between space science and space engineeringS

4. The merger of ISAS with NASDA and NAL?
Could you give us suggestions how we should proceed in this aspect?
It is inevitable but the present general attitude of ISAS seems to keep the good characteristics
of previous ISAS and the strategic plan to capitalize the resources which became newly
available by the merger is not clear to me (coming from outside ISAS). Please positively
follow the recommendations written in executive summary item 6 and spread the ‘ISAS style’and ‘ISAS atmosphere’ in all JAXA.
14

Comments by Lev Zelenyi
1. Has ISAS yielded sufficient results so far?
a. Overall activities
ISAS produced an outstanding contribution to the world science and contributed immensely
to the prestige of Japanese science and technology all over the world. It also gave an attractive example of economic and effective management providing excellent scientific results for
relatively small financial spending.
Excellent-S
b. Scientific activities
ISAS was involved in numerous multidisciplinary studies. Based on my expertise I could
mostly comment on ISAS research in a fields of solar - terrestrial and space plasma physics.
YOKHOH was one of the most successful solar missions and, in fact, pioneered the Xray vision of solar dynamics. It enabled to look inside the solar active regions, revealed
multiscale nature of energy conversion processes and emphasized the importance of magnetic
reconnection for solar corona.
Already early results from HINODE are very impressive. They should open new epoch
in Solar physics due to excellent resolution of instruments and their possibility to reveal
unprecedentally small spatial details.
GEOTAIL due to its ingenious trajectory, reliable and complete set of instruments produceda real wealth of results in magnetospheric physics. Geotail studied practically unexplored
distant parts of the Earth’s magnetotail which represent the real laboratory for studies ofnonlinear, high - beta, turbulent plasma.
Another achievement of Geotail was its investigation of global dynamics.
Of magnetosperic plasma in conjunctions with other IACG (interagency) spacecraft: POLAR,
WIND, INTERBALL, CLUSTER.
These studies allowed to reveal cause-effect relationships in substorm dynamics and contributeto building up the scientific background for the new practical discipline - Space Weather.
Excellent-S
c. Engineering activities
This part of ISAS activity could also be ranked very high.
Launching of more than 30 spacecraft with only very small number of failures is already asignificant achievement. One should take into account that both spacecraft, its instrumentation and launcher were developed by the same Institute. I do not know any such examples inother countries.
This combination of all responsibilities under ‘one roof’ is probably the unique Japanese experience and could explain thus far very successful scientific program of JAPAN. Most ISAS
missions were innovative in design and were at the upper edge of available technology. This
usually is related with significant but justified risk when one is attempted to do the top level science.
Excellent-S
d. Graduate education
The number of educational activities carried by ISAS is also impressive.
Even without going into details one could see the result. Practically all Japanese space physics
scientists I met thus far were associated with ISAS at one or another stage of their career.
As far as I understand, these scientists, being excellent specialists in their fields, learned bothpractical experimental skills and broad expertise in space sciences very significantly due totheir ISAS work or practice. In Russia we also follow this Scheme of teaching students ofmaster level in real research institutes.
15

Excellent-S
e. General education and public outreach
Activity of ISAS is very visible outside: Very well written informational booklets, attractive
WEB site with very good content, small but informative exhibition of ISAS projects. Very
important are ISAS open door days when many visitors (including politicians) get acquainted
with the achievements of modern space science. We (IKI) are learning from ISAS how to run
the outreach.

2. The academic research and space projects(Please give comments and/or S,A,B,C rating* on each item.)a. Space projects are generating significant results in academic research?
Modern space science is an experimental science and the only way to get new knowledge is toorganize complicated and relatively expensive space projects. ISAS since its formation wasvery in this activity. Sakigake, SUISEI, YOKHOH, AKEBONO, GEOTAIL, HINODE, – thisis only part of ISAS missions which produced outstanding scientific output and shaped ourknowledge of the near Earth space, comets Sun and X-ray universe and providing thus far
background for academic and theoretical research.
b. Academic researches are aimed at future important space science/engineering missions?
Significant part of ISAS activity is related with preparation of future scientific and technological breakthrough. Very perspective line of investigations was opened by small auroral
satellite REIMEI, which demonstrates the appearance of new modem experimental tools for
ISAS investigations.
Another example is KAGUYA mission also attempted to verify new experimental; concepts.
c. Are space projects and academic research conducted with sufficient international
collaborations?
Is ISAS taking significant roles in the international spacescience and engineering development?
Most of principal ISAS projects were done with significant international involvement. This
happens even two levels – within the project (international instruments, like it was at e.g.
YOKHOH, Geotail ) and by coordination and data exchange with other Agency spacecraft(e.g. INTERBALL - GEOTAIL - POLAR : Sakigake - SUISEI - VEGA - GIOTTO)

3. How do you evaluate the following important features of ISAS?
a. Conducting academic research, space projects, and graduate education in one institute.
It is excellent and very rewarding approach. It is not only ISAS invention – Russia (since
1960-ies) also practice the training of master level students beyond their academic universities– in real Scientific Research institutes.
Comparison with classical University system clearly shows that it is much less effective incomparison with teaching by real research experts.
So our experience fully confirms that ISAS approach of conducting academic research, space
projects, and graduate education in one institute is fully justified.
Excellent-S
b. Inter-university system in basic research and mission implementation.
According to description I got it is very reasonable and important system for JAPAN with theone major Space center and many universities all over the country. Involvement of scientists
from various Universities to the work over the results of space missions is good idea which
is beneficial both for ISAS and University researchers who get chance to work with leading
experts at the scientific frontiers.
16

c. Bottom-up system for the mission selection
Judging on results of this selection (list of the launched ISAS spacecraft) system is wellorganized: involve vast expertise of entire scientific community, take into account plans ofother agencies and is aimed on achievement of original and pioneering scientific findings.
d. Cooperation between space science and space engineering
Very important and unique feature of ISAS strongly contributing thus far to the impressive listof its space achievements. Unfortunately due to different historic roots between Academy andspace Industry in Russia we does not have the numerous advantages of such close cooperation.

4. The merger of ISAS with NASDA and NAL?
Could you give us suggestions how we should proceed in this aspect?
Generally speaking each process has its advantages and disadvantages. I could only say that
ISAS as it is visible from outside is a national property of JAPAN substantially contributing
to national prestige. (From this point of view it was very wise decision to keep the name of
ISAS)
ISAS as a mature and successful organization has its Style of doing top-level science, wellrecognized and respected all over the world. Science is a subtle thing and the main recommendation could only be ‘HANDLE WITH CARE’. Criteria of success and risk are different forpractical space applications (communications, navigation, meteorology, military..) and scientific space missions.. Without weighted risk in space science one will always remain behind.
It is enough to remember the history of Mars investigations with a long list of spacecraft lostby all space agencies. But without these losses we could not be that far in understanding
MARS and its environment as we are now..
Another unique feature of ISAS style is its close association with space education andproviding educational space practice to students and researchers from various Japanese universities. This important and very successful mode of Science-education interaction, I think,is also necessary to conserve.
Otherwise merger with NASDA I suppose might help to even strengthen close links between
science and engineering typical for ISAS before.

17Comments by Hiroshi Oya
1. Has ISAS yielded sufficient results so far?
a. Overall activities
Rating: A
In general, activities are evaluated to be good considering the number of researchers, technicians and supporting administrative staff and the budget size.
b. Scientific activities
Rating: S
Overall, the activities are evaluated to be excellent. This evaluation is, however, mostly
due to the results in the fields of Astronomy and Solar Terrestrial Physics. There remains asignificant defect in the field of Planetary Science. The achievement in the planetary science isin the level appropriate for the potential capability of ISAS. Some contradictory issues seems
to be existing in ISAS system which may be required to improve to manage large integrated,complicated missions such as missions for Lunar and Planetary science.
c. Engineering activities
Rating: A
In total the activities are evaluated to be good. In individual activities, the successful ion
propulsion and encounter with an Asteroid are excellent achievements, However systematicorganization to pursue space missions is weak for the execution of consolidated routine-typework due to a lack of technical field staff.
d. Graduate education
Rating: A
Generally speaking the graduate education system is not good; this is not progressing welland has the same character as after the start of previous ISAS, which was biased to relations
with the University of Tokyo.
It should be opened towards view point of international competition after the unification(NASDA and ISAS) to the absolutely single space agency in Japan. In this context, ISAS
has responsibility to be center for educations in the field of space science and engineering.
ISAS graduate education system has responsibilities to educate all young students who possess
quality and a willingness to make outstanding, excellent, or good achievement in space scienceor engineering field without depending on the university from which they graduated.
e. General education and public outreachRating: A
Activities are good, making efforts to provide information to outside and providing chances tohigh-school students to make experiences of designing spacecraft; more efforts however may
be needed with the concept that funding is originally provided by tax payers. In this context,
NASA outreach activities are a good target for the efforts of ISAS outreach activities.

2. The academic research and space projects
a. Space projects are generating significant results in academic research?
Rating: S(I) Science1) Astronomy and Astrophysics

18

Excellent results have been obtained, including some of outstanding discoveries. Although
one X-ray astronomy mission failed due to malfunction of the first stage booster, 6 spacecraft
launched between 1982 and 2006 effectively achieved their purposes. This field was originallybiased to X-ray astronomy, but has been expanded to include infrared astronomy, although
the field of ultraviolet astronomy has not been included.
2) Space plasma physics
Two solar missions are providing outstanding data for studies of solar plasma physics. The
Geotail mission, carried out on a collaborative basis with NASA, has also achieved excellent
results providing a good counterpart to solar plasma physics, by seeking proof of magnetic
reconnection. Results from Akebono, however, were not included in the ISAS report forevaluation. This is related to some aspect of defects in the inter-university system in ISAS.
3) Lunar / Planetary science
The Lunar penetrator has is the subject in which related persons have been involved almost 20
years not as basic study but as mission-oriented works without any result. With abandoning
the Lunar-A mission, the Lunar penetrator subject becomes serious problem if ISAS will
not investigate and analyze the origin of trouble and responsibility for the trouble, fromstandpoints of healthy operation of ISAS system.
The failure of Nozomi mission may be not be independent from the selection of Lunar-A
mission. The selection of Mars in that period was rather unreasonable because there was nocontinuation of technical feasibility. Due to the selection of the Lunar-A mission, possible
planetary missions which could have been more easy to achieve than Mars, such as Venus forexample, were not selected.
There is now hope to recover the activities in this field by the Kaguya mission that is presently
running successfully. The Hayabusa mission provides a good illustration of ISAS’s potential,
but that cannot be counted as scientific achievement until sampled material is returned,
contrary to the ambitious achievement of engineering side.
4) Atmospheric Science
After Ohzora, there have been no satellites prepared for atmospheric science. This could
be ISAS policy. After the start of JAXA, however, it should be not allowed to be narrowin selection of science fields. It is particularly urgent and inevitable to make a responsible
contribution to the observation of the global atmospheric environment. It is not clear how the
ISAS science team commits to this subject within the environment-related projects of JAXA.
The ISAS report of 2007 October only describes basic studies of the upper atmosphere carriedout using sounding rockets.
(II) Engineering
1) Development of solid propellant rockets
This traditional field, which has achieved a unique and worthwhile heritage, has completed
the establishment of M-3-SII and M-5 series rockets. All activities related to the M-3-SII and
M-5 series rockets are evaluated to be outstanding.
However, at the stage of continuous usage of such heritages, it is embarrassing that they havebeen considered as if only experimental objects for engineering development. Less attention
may have been paid with regard to these being products applicable to space observations;
i.e., reliability, and the costs for launching and production seem to have been unreasonable— space observations are then limited in ISAS.
2) Other projects
New original concepts in product and production, i.e., academic efforts in engineering, areevaluated as to be excellent; the many research results accumulated by Planet-A, HALCA,
Nozomi, and Hayabusa projects, for example are outstanding.
193) Lunar-A problem
No description is given of engineering efforts to achieve the Lunar-A mission, especially forthe efforts to develop penetrators. To clarify that some plans of lunar seismology scientists
were illusory, or unrealistic, in the early 1990’s, researchers in the engineering side shouldhave been more earnest and rigorous. It is suspected from past activities that desk-bounddesign engineers who do not have a good grasp or experience of real issues abandoned theirproblems to contractors.
b. Academic researches are aimed at future important space science/engineering missions?
Rating: A
In general, the fields of 1) Astronomy and Astrophysics, 2) Solar system science, and 3) Space
engineering try to have the best future missions. The field of Astronomy and Astrophysics isrevealing comprehensive and practical goals, while further investigations are required for someprojects of Solar system science. Straw-man design may be required for mission planning until
2025 to see whether planned missions are feasible within the framework of the ISAS budget
and manpower.
1) Astronomy and Observations
1.1 X-ray Observations
After the successful achievement of past and on-going missions the next target is set to observe high energy X-ray with high resolution by designing the NeXT mission and considering
participation to XEUS missions.
1.2 Infrared Observations
Looking at the results of AKARI, the SPICA mission is being considered. It is a very
ambitious plan, but the feasibility of “warm-launched cooled telescope” is not clear.
1.3 Radio Observations
A succeeding mission to HALCA is quite a natural target with specifications which achieve
higher sensitivity and improved angular resolution.
Although no attention has been paid to it, low frequency radio astronomy will be importantin the future, becoming feasible by utilizing a lunar base cooperating with one of SELENE
series missions.
2) Solar system science
2.1 Planetary probes
The Laplace mission to Jupiter is quite important. ISAS should have its own spacecraft toarrive at Jovian magnetosphere, even if the total mission will be carried out on an international
collaborative base.
2.2 Space Plasma physics
The description in report is simply philosophical; no practical image is presented except forgroup flight of multiple spacecraft, and lecturing on the Plasma Universe, which H. Alfven
had emphasized throughout his life works. It is important what has been achieved by the
Geotail mission, and also it is very important that the plasma universe including magnetizedrotating bodies, such as pulsars and rotating black holes, is investigated. From this context,
20

studies of Akebono results are also important to plan future missions in the field of spaceplasma.
2.3 Atmospheric science
After the Planet-C mission, a follow-on mission may be needed because Planet-C is the firstmission to study planetary atmosphere and unexpected subjects will be raised, if the teamcomplete their responsibilities.
The TOPS project looks to be in danger because the space telescope requires a highly accurate
pointing capability; a small satellite may not be able to satisfy the specification. Before thestart of the project, a feasibility study should be done practically so that it will not be trappedon a treadmill, like the Lunar-A mission.
2.4 Solid planetary science
Having SELENE missions is important, using landers which are an orthodox approach tostudies of the lunar body and origin.
3) Space Engineering
All planning may stimulate the activities in space engineering field. The individual future
missions raised in the field of science also include subjects required new technology.
c. Are space projects and academic research conducted with sufficient international
collaborations?
Is ISAS taking significant roles in the international spacescience and engineering development?
Rating: A
International collaborations in ISAS are excellent, in the past, present, and future, homogeneously in all academic sides of activities. In all collaboration activities ISAS has taken on
significant roles. In astronomy and astrophysics, to the established framework of missions,suitable sensors were invited as in the cases of Solar-A and Solar-B. In the case of HALCA,
the formation of an international network for correlation of data was excellent. In the field ofSpace Plasma, achievement had on the contrary been made with a NASA launcher with an
ISAS designed spacecraft; even significant instruments were invited from US-side initiative
to mission control was ISAS side always. In Akebono, Canadian team was also invited forspecial mass spectrometer which was well advanced. The motivation to invite international
participation was to offer the opportunity to countries who have no spacecraft. Missions
planning for the future with ESA, such as BepiColombo and Laplace and Scope related missions, is considered to be excellent international collaboration activities where ISAS will takesignificant roles.

3. How do you evaluate the following important features of ISAS?
a. Conducting academic research, space projects, and graduate education in one institute.
The present situation of ISAS where professors in ISAS are in charge of academic research,space projects and graduate education has historical origins. In all organizations, functions
are mixed in the initial “primitive” phase, and carried out by personal energy which is easy
to generate because the system itself is simple although the kinds of work are multiple. Whenthe system grows too large and complicated, discrepancies start to become apparent.
Seeing ISAS future projects and responsibilities as members of JAXA, which is the single
21

space agency in Japan, some discrepancies will be revealed. Persons responsible for management and planning and coordination of projects should not be selected from researchers andprofessors for education even from the same institute.
b. Inter-university system in basic research and mission implementation.
Because ISAS has responsibility as member of JAXA which is the single space agency inJapan, maintaining the Inter-University system is essential. However many points to be improved have not been taken care of since the period of old ISAS.
The present system, where university staff join the projects as individuals, contains a basic
discrepancy. University personnel receive no rewards or insurance except for the scientificoutcome even if they devote themselves to the tremendous side works to pursue the mission,
while their positions are not evaluated at their university. Thus young persons have a tendency not to participate in ISAS projects. From the opposite side, ISAS is neglecting thecontribution of outside personnel, stating that ISAS does not evaluate the contribution ofindividual persons.
Only way to improve this issue is to change the policy of the inter-university relationshipto an “institution (ISAS) to institution (University)” basis from the current “individual to
ISAS” basis. Big ISAS projects may broken down into sub-systems which will be carried out
by each participating university. In this case the functions of the Inter-University steeringcommittee should be established to achieve organized activities. For this context it is also
noted that management and planning and coordination of projects should be separated fromresearchers and professors for education even within ISAS.
c. Bottom-up system for the mission selection
Philosophically the present system can be evaluated as not bad, but not excellent; and forsome cases, the system does not work well. The bottom-up process is important but the recommendations of the steering committee are not reliable because of their lack of constitution.
Selection by the scientific steering committee is made on a competitive basis between fields
by professors who cannot have a deep understanding of other fields. When interesting topics
appear, for example, the vote may concentrate to such a subject without considering thefeasibility and strategy of missions in that field. Without an established constitution, whensomeone agitates, for example, “let’s select a unique and interesting theme”, the committee
members of different fields think that it is reasonable, without knowing the background details hidden under the presented information. ISAS should establish a constitution for theselection by investigating and evaluating all past missions including the case of Lunar-A.
d. Cooperation between space science and space engineering
This subjects has the flavor of historical consequence of the development of academic side ofspace exploration activities in Japan. It is quite true that collaboration is quite close between
space science and space engineering as described in the report of ISAS/JAXA activities (October 2007). However, the harmony of collaborations between these two major fields dependon the stage and situation of the development. In the past, in the 1980s and 1990s, the development of space science and engineering activities was quite unique; and the M-3S-II systemcompletely matched the ISAS system of expanded university involvement which consists of
the internal collaborations of multiple “kouza” laboratories.
When the era of M-5 rockets arrived, it starts to become apparent that the extended university system contains a lot of difficult points to implement in a large integrated system
where many complicated practical works that are not suited to academic minds and thoughtprocesses.
Now, ISAS is required to switch the concept to manage large and significant projects, suchas planetary explorations and large space telescopes, for example. Without losing the academic character of ISAS, many ISAS tasks could be merged to the new JAXA management
operation strategy.
22

4. The merger of ISAS with NASDA and NAL?
Could you give us suggestions how we should proceed in this aspect?
I do not have detailed information on how ISAS has been affected by the merger. The description here is, thus, mainly based on the description given in the report of ISAS/JAXA
activities (October 2007).
From an outward looking impression, it can be stated that ISAS has kept its original framework completely, having a clean interface to the old NASDA organization except for themerging of several programs such as the SELENE mission, and small satellite project. The
new position of ISAS is then authorized to live in academic territory for both science andengineering.
In this new position then, ISAS has the responsibility to conduct academic research, space
projects and graduate education in parallel in one institute within the force balance of JAXA,
a single absolute organization for Japanese space activities and development.
In this situation, the effects of the merger are evaluated as insufficient to improve the system.
There may be advantages because new routes are opened for the use of HII type large launcher
by merger. From the standpoint of seeking reasonable and optimum utilization of the system
due to the merger, many subjects are left without improvement.
1) The facilities for launching and spacecraft operation are controlled by independent control
systems of ISAS and other JAXA organizations. And operation and management of space
projects are running under different systems as if no merger has taken place between theformer NASDA and former ISAS. By organizing a new office or directory to cover the entire
JAXA system for launching and operation of space missions, the operation of large projects
will become reasonable. In this case, ISAS activities will be concentrated to more academic
features in basic research related to space and the universe, together with graduate education
also for inter-university corporations.
2) The present graduate education system in ISAS remains as the result of a traditional historical
heritage. It is required to investigate the allocation of the function of graduate education in
the new JAXA; even though it will turn out that ISAS will be the most suitable institution for
education, eventually. By this investigation, the concept for the graduate education system
will be improved with a wider scope in which all suitable students from all universities inJapan are covered without restricting participation to students from the university of Tokyo.
3) Planetary exploration will become a significant subject in JAXA in the near future. It is
inevitable that the organization to be the center for planning, operation and data acquisition
for the planetary exploration activity will not only belong to ISAS. It would be natural tobe the JAXA organization. In this case, ISAS should join planetary science as the leading
member of JAXA.

5. Other comments
There is no detailed report for the cancellation of the Lunar-A project even though themission had continued for 16 years after the official approval by the ministry of education in1991. If ISAS accepts the cancellation, just stating that the reason is the deterioration of themain instrument due to the passage of time, without analyzing the real source of problem,
the important chance to improve the selection system for future missions in ISAS may belost. I recommend making an analyses of the real origin of problems associated with Lunar-A
mission selection, which are related to the development of the ‘penetrator’.

23Comments by Hiroko Nagahara
1. Has ISAS yielded sufficient results so far?
a. Overall activities
S
ISAS has made a great contribution in leading Japanese space, astronomical, and planetarysciences through successes in missions for twenty years. Successes have been brought by
the “bottom-up system”, collaboration with universities, and strong collaboration between
scientific and engineering communities. It also developed human resources in space scientificand engineering fields, which resulted in development of large communities in Japan.
b. Scientific activities
S
ISAS has made excellent scientific achievements, particularly in the field of high energy,
plasma, and infrared sciences on the basis of observations.
c. Engineering activities
S
The engineering activity of ISAS has been excellent under restricted human and financial
resources, which has led many missions to success.
d. Graduate educationA
ISAS has carried out excellent education in developing scientists and engineers who will leadthe missions and science of the next generation. On the other hand, it has been so tightly
focused, at least the young scientists could be active only at ISAS, but often had difficultyin moving to universities. In future, more general education will be necessary to promotepersonnel exchange between ISAS and universities.
e. General education and public outreachA
ISAS has strengthened its activity in public outreach, and many people have become interested in the missions. They can be better known if they advertise their activity in schools,
which is very important to arouse the interest of children and young people in space sciences.

2. The academic research and space projects
a. Space projects are generating significant results in academic research?
S
Space projects have continuously stimulated academic activity of ISAS, which is without
doubt one of the most important parts of ISAS. Graduate students have developed theirability in projects including scientific, engineering, managing and collaboration.
b. Academic researches are aimed at future important space science/engineering missions?
S
Academic researched at ISAS has been tightly related to future missions, and therefore, goodresults have come through the mutual progress.
c. Are space projects and academic research conducted with sufficient international
collaborations?
Is ISAS taking significant roles in the international space24

science and engineering development?
S
Space projects at ISAS have been carried out through intimate relationship between international projects, which also resulted in the case in academic research.

3. How do you evaluate the following important features of ISAS?
a. Conducting academic research, space projects, and graduate education in one institute.
This is a unique and excellent system of ISAS, which has produced many excellent scientists
and engineers. Therefore, the system should be kept in the future.
b. Inter-university system in basic research and mission implementation.
This is an important system, which has played an important role to enlarge the size of thecommunity all over Japan, and it should be kept in the future. In order to do so, it needs
improvement of the educational level of ISAS. It is because universities in Japan have been
carrying heavier responsibility in education than before. If ISAS does not have the capability
at a similar level, personal exchanges will become difficult. If personal exchanges become lessactive, the size of the community will be reduced.
c. Bottom-up system for the mission selection
It is really an important system in space and planetary sciences in Japan. It increases theactivity of research community, and should be kept in the future.
d. Cooperation between space science and space engineering
It is very important to maintain excellent missions. Without mutual understanding at a deeplevel, missions will not get satisfactory results. The system should be kept in the future.

4. The merger of ISAS with NASDA and NAL?
Could you give us suggestions how we should proceed in this aspect?
Four years have already been passed since the merger: ISAS should accept this change.
The good systems shown above should be maintained in the future, but some parts of theinstitution will probably be able to merge with NASDA or NAL. By reducing the size, residual
parts of the institution will become larger and be able to expand scientific activities.

25

Comments by Charles Elachi
1. Has ISAS yielded sufficient results so far?
a. Overall activities
S
b. Scientific activities
Sc. Engineering activities
S
d. Graduate education
S
e. General education and public outreachB

2. The academic research and space projects
a. Space projects are generating significant results in academic research?
Sb. Academic researches are aimed at future important space science/engineering missions?
Sc. Are space projects and academic research conducted with sufficient international
collaborations?
Is ISAS taking significant roles in the international spacescience and engineering development?
B

3. How do you evaluate the following important features of ISAS?
a. Conducting academic research, space projects, and graduate education in one institute.
Sb. Inter-university system in basic research and mission implementation.
Sc. Bottom-up system for the mission selectionSd. Cooperation between space science and space engineering
S

26

Comments by Elaine S. Oran
1. Has ISAS yielded sufficient results so far?
ISAS is a world-renowned space research organization with an excellent record of scientific andengineering achievements. The work done in ISAS is at the forefront of scientific research, andin selected areas, it is definitely leading the way. There is impressive coordination between
engineering and science, and this seems to be one of the keys to its success. Another basis
for success is maintaining a very high quality of scientists and engineers. A third reason is
the talented cadre of students at all levels that work at ISAS.
An organization does not have to be large to be a high achiever and have high impact. It canbe smaller, focused, and do high quality work. ISAS maintains this standard.
Rating: S
a. Overall activities
As with any research organization, the work at ISAS is continually changing to meet new
challenges. The work done at ISAS has very high impact.
Rating: S
b. Scientific activities
The scientific research at ISAS covers the entire range of topics from studies of cosmologicalor universal questions to questions of our solar system.
Rating: S
c. Engineering activities
There are impressive efforts to coordinate engineering development with science. They appear
to be working.
Rating: A+
d. Graduate education
I do not have a good feel for this. I do know that ISAS has high standards for its students andthey are well thought of in the outside world. The ISAS plan of coordination with multiple
universities throughout the country sounds good. I do not have the experience or good enoughunderstanding of the process give it a rating.
e. General education and public outreach
I believe that this is done very well by ISAS, and this is in contrast to NASA who I believe
overdoes it with respect to spending for publicity and perhaps less effectual outreach. ISAS
seems more reserved and thoughtful about it.
Rating: A+

2. The academic research and space projects
a. Space projects are generating significant results in academic research?
Rating: S
Atmospheric Science: I do not see where the current research is headed. A clear plan proposedby the head of this group would be useful. I see this field merging with climate work andmagnetospheric physics. Solar-System Science: These are large projects and much could be
gained by collaboration within the JAXA framework. Studies of solar physics and space
weather are extremely important for basic science and for practical decisions about future
missions. This is an area in which ISAS can excel. Astrophysics: This is a truly top field in
ISAS, and should be supported.
27

The history of engineering projects that have succeeded or failed have taught us a lot and are
truly important. ISAS has exceeded in this by starting small and building gradually. This is
obviously a successful approach that might be difficult (but important) to continue with the
JAXA context.
b. Academic researches are aimed at future important space science/engineering missions?
From my point of view, it is hard to know what is the most important type of mission. Thereis just so much that we need to know at every level. There are some big questions, such as
water or fuel content of the moon and mars, the nature of space weather, our climate ... Any
information that is carefully obtained is important.
Rating: A+
c. Are space projects and academic research conducted with sufficient international
collaborations?
Is ISAS taking significant roles in the international spacescience and engineering development?
International collaboration is some place between very good (A) to excellent (S). ISAS has
been able to do this effectively and maintain a clear identity. More international collaboration
at every level would be useful, particularly in the atmospheric work. I think there needs tobe a clear plan for tying this to climate and interplanetary work.
Rating: A+

3. How do you evaluate the following important features of ISAS?
a. Conducting academic research, space projects, and graduate education in one institute.
ISAS has developed what seems to be a unique and highly successful system for combining
all of this work in one institution. It should be nurtured. I am not sure how well it is working
generally, but the graduates are highly respected and the atmosphere that we saw seemedvery productive.
Rating: A+
b. Inter-university system in basic research and mission implementation.
I did not get enough information about how this was really working.
c. Bottom-up system for the mission selection
This is important and there should always be a significant amount this type of project initiation in any high-level research organization. The number of committees does seem overwhelming, and I have some concern about whether committee work might take up too muchtime.
Rating: A
d. Cooperation between space science and space engineering
There appears to be close collaboration, and this is excellent. It is true that any inadequacies
in one of these directly one diminishes the work of the other, even if the fields are quite
different.
Rating: S

28

4. The merger of ISAS with NASDA and NAL?
Could you give us suggestions how we should proceed in this aspect?
Now ISAS has a much more extensive job than it had before: it must not only maintain a highlevel of activity in science and engineering research, and a high profile in international scienceand engineering research, but it must now coordinate its activities with a broader agency thathas could have quite different objectives. In one way, this gives ISAS the opportunity to extend
its research and take on even larger projects. In another sense, it can dilute its activities andthis would not be good. This will take work to establish and maintain good relations andcoordinate the ISAS work with the JAXA framework. It would be best if personnel in theother organizations of JAXA felt they had an investment in ISAS, and something clear to
be gained by interactions. I believe that it will take a lot of concentrated work by everyone
affiliated with ISAS, both now and in the past, to ensure that the unification that JAXA
intends is achieved without diluting the quality of work in ISAS.

5. Other comments
One potentially alarming factor is that the budget does not seem to have changed significantly.
In fact, it seems to have decreased somewhat recently. This is not a good trend. It is possiblethat there is more budget than apparent through ISAS collaborations with other institutions,but at a time like this, with even more responsibilities on its shoulders, ISAS needs a clear
increase in resources.
Every effort should be maintained to increase this diversity and internationalization. ISAS
could be a model for this in Japan.

29

Comments by Robert Farquhar
1. Has ISAS yielded sufficient results so far?
a. Overall activities
Rating: S
Results to date are very impressive by any standard of measurement. This is especially true
for an organization with less than 150 permanent research staff and a relatively small budget.
b. Scientific activities
Rating: S
Scientific productivity is quite good throughout the history of ISAS. The recent orbital operations at the asteroid Itokawa were outstanding.
c. Engineering activities
Rating: S
The high level of competence and experience in spacecraft systems and operations has enabledhigh scientific productivity. In particular, the mission to Itokawa was possible due to the rapid
development of a viable ion-propulsion system.
d. Graduate education
Rating: A
This area appears to be adequate. The experience of involvement with real missions cannot
be underestimated.
e. General education and public outreachRating: A
Record is OK, but ISAS could make substantial improvements by studying the accomplishments of the European Space Agency and NASA/JPL in this field.

2. The academic research and space projects
a. Space projects are generating significant results in academic research?
Rating: S
Excellent results in all fields of space science. Particularly noteworthy are ISAS contributionsin the fields of X-ray, infrared, and radio astronomy. Solar space physics and space plasma
physics also have superb records of achievement. The failure of the Nozomi was more thanoffset by the spectacular success of the Hayabusa mission to the primitive body, Itokawa.
On the engineering side, ISAS has demonstrated that it has world-class capabilities in
the fields of mission and trajectory design, deep-space navigation, and interplanetary mission
operations. Outstanding achievements in spacecraft design include the areas of attitudecontrol systems, propulsion, and data handling.
b. Academic researches are aimed at future important space science/engineering missions?
Rating: A
The planning of future missions in astronomy is quite reasonable — NeXT (2013) and XEUS
(2018) for X-ray astronomy, Astro-G (2012) for radio astronomy, and SPICA for infrared
astronomy. Because SPICA is in an early planning stage, I would strongly recommend that
ISAS study the desirability of placing this spacecraft in a ‘halo orbit’ around the Sun-Earth
L2 libration point where thermal and observational constraints are minimized while keeping
communication distances relatively small. I would also recommend that the next solar physics
30

mission (SOLAR-C) consider the use of a halo orbit around the Sun-Earth L1 point. At thislocation, the SOLAR-C spacecraft could carry out solar-wind measurements that would provide input data for ISAS spacecraft that are inside the Earth’s magnetosphere.
With regard to future lunar and planetary missions, I feel that there is too much emphasis
at ISAS on missions to the Moon. In my opinion, there are already too many lunar missions
under consideration by NASA and other space agencies. It is a fact that lunar science is not
the highest priority planetary science. Moreover, given this situation, the ISAS contribution
to lunar science is likely to be somewhat redundant. On the other hand, ISAS can play asignificant and unique role in the exploration of comets and asteroids.
On the engineering side, the ISAS technology studies on solar sails could lead to an important new capability for deep-space exploration. I would recommend that more resources
should be allocated to this endeavor to speed up its availability for use in future missions.
I’m less enthusiastic about the development of a ‘low-cost flexible standard bus’. This is an
old idea that has been tried many times before without success.
c. Are space projects and academic research conducted with sufficient international
collaborations?
Is ISAS taking significant roles in the international spacescience and engineering development?
Rating: S
ISAS has a good record of international collaboration. Among the outstanding mission examples are GEOTAIL (with NASA’s ISTP Program) and the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter(with ESA’s Bepi Colombo Project).
I have noted ISAS’ interest in a mission to a deep-space asteroid located beyond Jupiter’s
orbit. Of course, this mission will require a nuclear power source and a large launch-energy
capability — which ISAS does not currently have. However, several groups in the UnitedStates are proposing missions to Centaurs and KBOs under NASA’s Discovery Program. I
would strongly recommend that ISAS investigate the possibility of participating in one ofthese proposals. Possible participation would include a science instrument and/or an additional spacecraft.

3. How do you evaluate the following important features of ISAS?
a. Conducting academic research, space projects, and graduate education in one institute.
This policy has worked well for many years. I see no reason why it should not continue.
b. Inter-university system in basic research and mission implementation.
I have no opinion on this issue.
c. Bottom-up system for the mission selection
I am concerned that the process is controlled too much by a few committees. With thisprocess, innovative mission concepts may not be studied in enough detail, and could bediscarded prematurely. I would recommend that a fairly large number of mission concept
studies be conducted in some depth before making a final decision.
d. Cooperation between space science and space engineering
In the United States, I often hear the phrase that ‘scientific space missions are done for thescientists’. This is not true — scientific space missions are done for SCIENCE. It takes equal
contributions from scientists and engineers to achieve science results. Fortunately at ISAS,
scientists and engineers have always had a productive working relationship.

4. The merger of ISAS with NASDA and NAL?
Could you give us suggestions how we should proceed in this aspect?
31

It would make sense to allocate about 30% of the total JAXA budget to space science. This
would be consistent with many other national space agencies (e.g., ESA and NASA). ISAS
will need to fight hard for its fair share of the JAXA budget.

5. Other comments* The development of the next-generation solid-fuel launch vehicle should be accelerated.
Currently, ISAS does not have a cost-effective way to launch important low-cost missions
such as Hayabusa-2.
* The new ‘Space Exploration Center’ is a fine idea as long as it complements ISAS spacescience activities and does not replace them.

32

Comments by Yoichi Hori
1. Has ISAS yielded sufficient results so far?
a. Overall activities
yesb. Scientific activities
yesc. Engineering activities
yes
d. Graduate educationyes
e. General education and public outreachyes

2. The academic research and space projects
a. Space projects are generating significant results in academic research?
yesb. Academic researches are aimed at future important space science/engineering missions?
yesc. Are space projects and academic research conducted with sufficient international
collaborations?
Is ISAS taking significant roles in the international spacescience and engineering development?
yes

3. How do you evaluate the following important features of ISAS?
a. Conducting academic research, space projects, and graduate education in one institute.
See separate “Comments on mid-term and long-term visions of space engineering” on following pages.
b. Inter-university system in basic research and mission implementation.
See separate comments.
c. Bottom-up system for the mission selection
See separate comments.
d. Cooperation between space science and space engineering
Researchers in space engineering at ISAS must pursue leading-edge engineering researches asbasic science. The demands from space science can be utilized as new subjects in engineering.
Many fields in engineering started in such a way. Engineers at ISAS can take advantage of
their location where the users are designing their new missions.
In regard to the relation with universities, it is important to convey the message to young
generations that many fields of engineering are connected to space. Students with a base inelectronics, mechanics, chemistry, material science can do space engineering in their graduate
33

course. Such messages that there are many starting points in space engineering should besent to not only university students but also high school and junior high school students.
There is leading-edge engineering in space. This includes high reliability, practical leadingedge engineering. Thus the space engineering at ISAS should generate new ideas and givethem to universities. This will activate engineering and becomes a significant contribution to
the general public.
See also the separate comments.

4. The merger of ISAS with NASDA and NAL?
Could you give us suggestions how we should proceed in this aspect?
ISAS must keep its uniqueness and keep basic research. This is a kind of duty as a research
institute in which the inter-university system is working.
The relation between the engineering research at ISAS and R&D in other institutions of
JAXA is somewhat similar to the relation between the advanced development and productdevelopment in car companies. For those companies product development is more importantfor immediate reasons, and by orders of magnitude more resources are put into it.
There are areas in between the two. The important issue is to find a balance between advanced
development and product development. There are many good, and also bad, examples in car,semiconductor, railway, and electric power companies. For example, those companies which
do not have their own technologies but depend on others always become weak and disappear.
In JAXA, developments which are immediately useful may be done by other institutions.
ISAS should keep doing engineering research for the future and to grow in size, and JAXA
must be tolerant against risks.
The relation between ISAS and other institutions of JAXA is also similar to the relation
between the grant-in-aid of JSPS and the investment of NEDO. NEDO decides themes by a
top down process and concentrates a large amount of budget to it. Thus any failures are fatal.
Researches supported by grants-in-aid of JSPS are different and can be more challenging. See
also the attached sheets.

5. Other comments
As to questions 1 and 2, I answer supportively that ISAS is doing well. As to questions 3
and 4, please refer to the attached document which I sent to the steering committee of spaceengineering in response to a request from the chair of the committee, Prof. Inatani. This
document will answer question 3 in particular. (This document, “Comments on mid-termand long-term visions of space engineering,” follows these comments) As to question 4, therelation between NASDA and ISAS is similar to that between the R&D support by NEDO
and the grant-in-aid scheme of MEXT. I hope ISAS keeps its originality and does not forget
fundamental research which may not be useful immediately. In relation to the inter-university
system, it is also important to convey a message to younger generations that not only the
space and aeronautics but also that of the electronics and other fields of engineering haveconnections to space.

34

Comments on mid-term and long-term visions of space engineering— as members of steering committee of space engineering

Yoichi Hori (electric engineering) and Kazuo Hodate (electronics engineering)
We hereby answer the questions from Prof. Inatani, the chair of the steering committee of spaceengineering on September 4.
Both Hori and Hodate are relatively new members of the committee. Hori’s major is control
engineering and Hodate’s major is optical electronics. Both have close relationships with researchers
at ISAS in graduate education. We share supervising students, and evaluations of theses. Our
students often obtain jobs at ISAS, and students who complete a masters degree at ISAS often
come as our doctor-course students. We would like to summarize here issues related to future
visions of space engineering which we have observed during those interactions with ISAS activities.
And we will express our hope for future.
1. Balance between the activity which are closely related to space science and the research
activity which space engineering conducts by itself.
This issue is related to the fundamental identity of engineering. Engineering must be useful
to society. Thus, demands from society override the curiosity of a researcher. Demands to spaceengineering is not only from space science. However, space science so closely exists at ISAS. On
the other hand, space science mission can be realized only if engineering establishes the necessary
technology. Top science can be realized only with new technology.
However, if you limit the range of engineering which ISAS covers to research from demands,
challenging researches will go away and Japan will just follow China and India in the near future.
Engineering research based on seeds from space science have supported space science. We should
not throw this away, but should also strengthen the relations. Space engineering should stay near
the fields of space science which requires the most cutting-edge technology. Space science mustcover an area as wide as possible, because seeds cannot be found effectively.
2. Collaboration with universities and uniqueness of ISAS in relation to universities Collaboration with universities, in particular with top-level universities like university of Tokyo should not
be regarded as mere participation to graduate education, but should be regarded as raising world
top-level researchers.
The research themes of space engineering are very attractive to young, highly-capable researchers. It can show the needs of research explicitly and demandingly. Space engineering, whosebrand new research can be found around the corner of space development, is a very attractive
place to study. We can make use of this situation to make students understand the very essence ofengineering.
Sometimes it is said that ISAS is using students as a cheap labor to develop space equipment
and satellite operations. However, this is totally wrong. Top level students aim at space research,and laboratories at ISAS provide a unique opportunity for selected top-level students. It is not
wise to neglect this fact.
3. Relation between the bottom-up research scheme from community and the top-down research
scheme in JAXA.
Steering committees of space science and space engineering are important mechanisms whichmake the opinions of researcher communities in Japan known to the management of ISAS. To
outsiders, it sometimes look as if it is a cozy relationship. However in any system, since top-level
people cannot plan all the details of missions, a small-size working group must make strategic plans
in a bottom-up way. In JAXA, this may involve not only researchers in the fields of space scienceand engineering. This could work positively.
35‘Top-down research scheme in JAXA’ may mean that management of ISAS could be affected
not only by the relatively narrow view of space science and engineering, but also affected by somenew points of view. For example, space science missions may be selected not only from the scientificvalues but also international relations such as with the US. This could increase the budget of spacescience because this is closer to what the general audience wishes.
This approach may be worth considering. However, we must note the risk in accepting thisapproach. For example, the JAXA space exploration center, which is presently under discussion,
may place planetary exploration, which was previously a pure science, outside ISAS. If the Japanesecontribution to manned lunar missions is decided in a top-down way, the budget may increase but
the management could be out of our control. For example, moon science could go away.
4. Differentiation from and cooperation with engineering R&D in other institutions of JAXA.
The relation between the engineering research at ISAS and R&D in other institutions of JAXA issomewhat similar to the relation between the advanced development and product development incar companies. For those companies product development is regarded as being more important andmore resources are put into it. However, if it stop advanced development, the company becomes
weak and disappears.
It is important to make it understood widely in JAXA that research at ISAS is aimed at the
future and that this raises a new generation of researchers and sometimes results in new unexpected
achievements.
There is always a gray zone between the two categories. It is most important to keep balance
between advance development and product development. In industry, there are many good examples, but also many bad examples. A company which does not have its engineering base in itself
and is dependent on other companies always declines in the end.
5. Balance between project, research in preparation to a project, and basic research.
Basic research should be done by basic research funding or external funding. The issue isthe range and size of researches in preparation to a project. An example is the research funding
controlled by the steering committee of space engineering. The themes of this research funding
is selected by a bottom-up approach. Hori, who was a member of the selection committee, feltthat the selection was done very correctly and appropriately. However, at the same time he foundthat the boundaries of the three research categories are not clear and that the fields are actuallycontinuous.

36

Comments by Michikata, Kono
1. Has ISAS yielded sufficient results so far?
a. Overall activities
S
b. Scientific activities
Sc. Engineering activities
S
d. Graduate education
S
e. General education and public outreachA

2. The academic research and space projects
a. Space projects are generating significant results in academic research?
Sb. Academic researches are aimed at future important space science/engineering missions?
Sc. Are space projects and academic research conducted with sufficient international
collaborations?
Is ISAS taking significant roles in the international spacescience and engineering development?
S

37

Comments by Shin Takeuchi
1. Has ISAS yielded sufficient results so far?
a. Overall activities
Rating: S
Although I am familiar only with the field of microgravity science, I judge from the Reportof ISAS/JAXA Activities that ISAS space programs in recent years have generally beensuccessfully implemented and that good achievements in Space Science and Space Engineeringin these years can be recognized in the bibliographic data.
b. Scientific activities
Rating: S
The scientific activities can be evaluated from resulting publications. Productivity is reasonably good. The quality of the published papers can be judged from the citation data. The
overall results show the world average in the corresponding field, and the number of highly
cited papers normalized with the number of researchers is comparable to those of the best
five universities in Japan, which indicates the high level of scientific activities at ISAS as aJapanese institute.
c. Engineering activities
Rating: A
I am not familiar with the space vehicle technologies, but my impression is that the staff inthis area have been doing good work with the limited budget and a limited number of staff.
Recent successes of vehicle launch to implement space projects clearly indicate their excellent
activities. From the point of the space utilization, the support of Space Engineering looks to
be quite reliable.
d. Graduate education
Rating: B
In section 1.6, four categories of graduate students are presented. It is not clear what thedefinition of ‘Special Research Students’ is, but it does not seem to be appropriate to countthem as graduate students in ISAS. The number of Ph D students graduating every year is
10 to 20, which does not seem to be sufficient in a research institute with 90 professors andassociate professors. More effort is needed to increase the number of doctoral students.
e. General education and public outreachRating: S
Public outreach is an important role of ISAS in fulfilling the curiosity in natural scienceof young people and in fulfilling the accountability of activities of ISAS to the tax payer.
Activities for these purposes such as the Open House, Lectures, and Schools can be highly
evaluated. Good news in the mass media about successful space projects implemented by
ISAS is the most effective public outreach. From this point, recent successes of the ISAS
space projects, such as the SELENE Project, are quite valuable.

38

2. The academic research and space projects
I will confine myself to the field of space utilization in the field of Microgravity Science,
because I am not familiar with other fields.
a. Space projects are generating significant results in academic research?
Rating: S
Space projects in Microgravity Science include a variety of fields. The activities in ISAS
in this field are divided into the field of materials science and fundamental science. Taking
advantage of containerless and convection-free process under microgravity conditions into
account, the activities on materials science are focused on novel material synthesis, crystal
growth mechanism investigation, thermal properties measurements, Marangoni convection
mechanism investigation and combustion mechanism investigation. The selection of theseresearch topics is quite appropriate, and various valuable results have already been obtainedby ground-based experiments or short duration microgravity experiments. In particular, thepioneering research in thermal properties measurements of the melt of refractory metals, aboveand below the melting point, by use of electrostatic levitation furnace is notable. In many ofthese topics, further progress is expected by the future ISS space experiments. As precursory
experiments for JEM, the selection of the topics was quite appropriate. As a fundamental
science research, the topic of Coulomb crystal formation in dusty plasma was selected two
years ago in ISAS. This topic is becoming popular in the microgravity community in Russia
and Europe. Combined with the theoretical work, elucidation of Coulomb crystal formation
mechanism can be a second stage JEM flight project. Frankly speaking, however, I am notsure if this project can have a large enough impact on the fundamental science to justify thehigh cost of JEM utilization.
b. Academic researches are aimed at future important space science/engineering missions?
Rating: A
All the topics mentioned in (a) have been conducted aiming at future effective utilization ofISS.
c. Are space projects and academic research conducted with sufficient international
collaborations?
Is ISAS taking significant roles in the international spacescience and engineering development?
Rating: A
Many of the research topics being pursued by the microgravity science group have been
conducted by international collaboration. Some projects are to be implemented by use of
facilities in other agencies as international projects. The electrostatic levitation furnace being
developed by the microgravity science group is strongly recommended to be set up in JEM
in the future. The furnace is expected to be used internationally.

3. How do you evaluate the following important features of ISAS?
a. Conducting academic research, space projects, and graduate education in one institute.
The three kinds of activities, academic research, space technologies and education, should
jointly be conducted collaboratively in one institute with sufficient staff members. ISAS consists of eleven departments and five centers, which cover quite a vast area concerning space— not only of science fields but also technology fields. The total number of permanent professors, 146, may be enough for sixteen total sections, but the number of supporting staff
of technicians (80) and postdoctoral fellows (24) does not seem to be enough. Particularly,
39the number of postdocs and the number of doctoral course students are too small to conduct
leading-edge projects in every section.
b. Inter-university system in basic research and mission implementation.
The previous ISAS, before the merger with NASDA and NAL, as an institute attached directly
to Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, executed its inter-university supporting role
properly. This role has been adequately succeeded to new ISAS after the merger, keeping theculture of the university.
c. Bottom-up system for the mission selection
As far as the microgravity field is concerned, microgravity experimental opportunities areoffered by ISAS to all Japanese researchers. Most of the applications are approved by theselection committee to establish a variety of working groups. Though the budget for thissystem is very limited, this system surely serves for the bottom-up of the mission selection.
d. Cooperation between space science and space engineering
To conduct in-space experiments, collaboration between scientists and space engineers is
indispensable. I believe that the projects selected for microgravity experiments are properly
assisted by the staff of Institute of Aerospace Technology.

4. The merger of ISAS with NASDA and NAL?
Could you give us suggestions how we should proceed in this aspect?
I had been totally unfamiliar with NAL and had been familiar only partly with NASDA and
ISAS. So, it is not possible for me to evaluate the overall influence of the merger. I believethat the merger makes it possible to execute a large scale project much more effectively than
before by their collaboration. I have been familiar with Department of Space Biology andMicrogravity Sciences. Among eight laboratories in the Department, four had moved to ISAS
from NASDA after the merger. From the point of the space utilization in space biology andmicrogravity science, the unification of the laboratories in common fields to ISAS is better
than the situation before the merger so as to effectively organize the space utilization program.
However, the budget having been used by the former microgravity science group in NASDA
does not seem to be duly shifted to ISAS after the movement to ISAS of the microgravity
science group in NASDA. Another problem is that offering of the fund for ground-based
preparation experiments for space utilization (Koubo Chijou Kenkyu) has been organizedby Space Environment Utilization Center in Human Space system and Utilization Group,
independently from the working groups organized by the above Department of ISAS. This
independent system after the merger may not be appropriate for the effective and efficientuse of funds. In any case, in order to make the most of the research money, it seems necessary
to unify the research budgets in various sections in JAXA, spent by the microgravity science
community, totally of the amount of the order of 500 million yen including the cost of utilizing
microgravity facilities such as rocket, airplane and drop tube, into a part of the budget ofISAS.

5. Other comments(1) In evaluating a research institute from the international standard, the level of internationalization of the institute is one of the important items. It is sure that ISAS is implementing
big projects under international collaboration, but the percentages of foreign permanent staff
and postdoctoral fellows are too small compared to the international standard. It seems necessary to make efforts toward increasing foreign staff.

40

(2) The budget for JEM utilization is strictly limited. However, in order to acquire the highest
level results corresponding to the enormous amount of investment for the JEM construction
and not to waste a large amount of money and man-power spent in the past ten or more years
for preparatory ground-based research, it is strongly recommended to Government Officials
to increase the budget for JEM utilization so as to be able to execute effectively the mostvaluable JEM experiments.

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Comments by Yuichi Takayanagi
1. Has ISAS yielded sufficient results so far?
a. Overall activities
The ISAS activities which started from the pencil rocket experiment in 1955 have obtained
high-level achievement in space science and space engineering, which matches the size of theorganization. The Japanese original engineering activities in space started with Ohsumi grewto scientific activities by the Kyokko and Jikiken satellites and established the unique space
activities where space science and space engineering are closely cooperating. The comet Halley
missions, Sakigake and Suisei, which were parts of international observation network of thecomet, bred the background for space education and space public outreach, and contributed
to raise interest in space in young generations. Presently, Hayabusa, Suzaku, Akari and other
ISAS scientific spacecraft are contributing to international space science and attracting ageneral audience. ISAS is yielding sufficient results not only in academic research but also
growing young scientists and engineers. I especially appreciate the fact that those activities
are well organized with each other.
b. Scientific activities
In the fields of space science, observations of magnetospheres, observations of cosmic Xrays and solar X-rays, observations of cosmic infrared radiation, and others are highly rated
internationally. Considering the size of the organization as an institution of Japan, ISAS has
achieved sufficient high-level results and plenty of results.
c. Engineering activities
I am not rather familiar with this field. However, I appreciate the fact that the abovescientific results were achieved by support of engineering research using ground developments
and engineering test spacecraft. Hayabusa is the very good example of cooperation between
space engineering and space science in ISAS.
d. Graduate education
I have corresponded with many researchers in ISAS for long time. Based on this experience,
I feel that young people working now are all active and young generations are growing well.
In order to keep them active and to let them spread their research fields, the future visions
must be attractive and very clear. ISAS is trying to keep them so.
e. General education and public outreachA
Outreach of ISAS is producing significant results in general education and may be one of
the best among public outreach related to space technologies. ISAS is trying many different
approaches, and they are sometimes regarded as models of scientific public-outreach activities.
It is important to consider the community to which you are talking. The outreach activities
of ISAS is highly rated compared to the size of the organization.

2. The academic research and space projects
a. Space projects are generating significant results in academic research?
I see results of Hayabusa, Suzaku, Akari, and Hinode often in the mass media. I believe ISAS
projects are generating significant academic results.
b. Academic researches are aimed at future important space science/engineering missions?
The moon is attracting international attention now. A scientific mission like Kaguya wasplanned as ISAS’s original mission. Space science missions which aim at the future areplanned based on scientific achievement.
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c. Are space projects and academic research conducted with sufficient international
collaborations?
Is ISAS taking significant roles in the international spacescience and engineering development?
I believe ISAS is taking international role, even central roles in some case.

3. How do you evaluate the following important features of ISAS?
a. Conducting academic research, space projects, and graduate education in one institute.
ISAS’s activity is highly evaluated.
b. Inter-university system in basic research and mission implementation.
As above.
c. Bottom-up system for the mission selection
The bottom-up system is functioning well and the environment in which new imaginative
trials are picked up is kept well.
d. Cooperation between space science and space engineering
This feature worked well to obtain the achievement so far.

4. The merger of ISAS with NASDA and NAL?
Could you give us suggestions how we should proceed in this aspect?
I had some concern how communities of different cultures are merged. But, they are merging
in organization, and in the results we can find good features.
However, I still have a few concerns; how the result of merger works in the development of
new solid rockets, how the creativeness which was generated by close collaboration of spacescience and space engineering and which supported the ISAS activities is kept in JAXA.
I hope the good features of ISAS which were recognized by the international community will
not be lost.

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Appendix
Activities of the Visiting Evaluation Committee
Early October, 2007
Sending of the external evaluation materials to the committee members.
October 31 – November 1, 2007
Submission of the interim report from the committee members.
The external evaluation committee meetings at ISAS.
The Visiting Evaluation Committee Meeting at the ISAS Sagamihara Campus
Day - 1: Wednesday, Octber 31, 2007
09:30-09:40
09:40-10:00

10:00-13:00

13:00-14:00
14:00-17:15

17:15-18:00
18:00

19:00-21:00

Welcome Address and Remarks (Executive Director : Dr. Inoue)
Introduction of members
Election of Chairperson and Vice Chairperson
Discussion on proceeding of the committePresentations on ISAS Activities
General (Prof. Nakatani)
Space Science (Prof. Nakamura)Space Engineering (Prof. Inatani)
Lunch Break
Presentations on overviews of basic achievements and future plans
Space Science (Prof. Murakami)Space Science (Prof. Kato)Space Science (Prof. Fujimoto)Space Engineering (Prof. Abe)Space Engineering (Prof. Saito)
Space Environment Utilization (Prof. Kuribayashi)
Statistics of Research and Educational Activities (Prof. Mitsuda)
Poster Sessions on ISAS activities
Adjourn
Announcement on the reception (Executive Drector)
Move from ISAS to Hotel by the chartered bus
Reception

Day - 2: Thursday, November 1, 2007
09:00-11:30
11:30-12:30
12:30-13:40
13:40-15:00
15:00-15:10
15:10-15:20
15:20-15:25
15:25-15:30
15:30

Free Discussion
Lunch Break
Sagamihara Campus Tour (Prof. Takahashi)
Closing Session
Drafting the Summary Report (Closed)
Comment by the Chairperson
Comment by the Vice Chairperson
Submission of the draft summary report from Chairperson to Executive Drector
Closing Remarks (Executive Drector)
Adjourn

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Nov, 2007
Submission of the final report from the committee members.
Jan, 2008
Compilation of the external evaluation report.
Mar, 2008
The official publication of the external evaluation report.

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List of Handouts to the Visiting Evaluation Committee
1. REPORT OF ISAS ACTIVITIES

2. Preliminary Comments from the members of he Visiting Evaluation Committee

3. Presentation at the Visiting Evaluation Committee Meeting

4. Institute of Space and Astronautical Science 2007

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