Report of the External Evaluation Committee

for
Institute of Space and Astronautical Science,
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency

January, 2013

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

January, 2013

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.
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 each mediumterm plan period. This medium-term plan of JAXA requires the activities of ISAS to be reviewed
by an external evaluation committee before the end of the medium-term plan period. The ﬁrst
external review as a JAXA institution was held in 2007 for the JAXA’s ﬁrst medium-term plan
period. Fiscal year 2012 is the last year of the second medium-term plan period (April 2008 throughMarch 2013).
The members of the ISAS External Evaluation Committee were invited by Dr. Junjiro Onoda,
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 in Japan.
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 External Evaluation Committee meeting was held on October 24 and 25, 2012, at the
Sagamihara Campus of ISAS/JAXA. All sixteen committee members, eight from Japan and overseas, respectively, 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 some of committee members also
inspected the facilities at Sagamihara. In the morning of second day, ISAS answered some of thequestions raised in the ﬁrst day. The committee members divided into subgroups and worked on
the ﬁrst draft of “Comments and Recommendations” and Executive Summary . It was agreed
that ﬁnal adjustments would be made after the meeting when comments from the entire ExternalCommittee were in hand.
The comments on the Executive Summary from committee members were gathered by theend of November and reﬂected revisions to the original draft compiled by the Co-Chairpersons.
The revised draft was critiqued by the whole committee, was opened to the ISAS senior staﬀ forcomments, and was ﬁnalized by the committee in English.
The Japanese version was drafted by ISAS staﬀ representing 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 involves diﬃculties and risks. It takes courage to tackle such missions,but unless the necessary risks are responsibly taken the work soon becomes routine and obsolete.
The External Committee has concerns that some of the support that has led to the excellent record
ISAS has accumulated over the years is may undergo some changes. It is the External Committee’ssincere 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 exhibitedpride and responsibility in carrying out its assigned role.

January, 2013

Chair and Vice Chair of the Review Committee,

Tetsuo Yasaka

C. Megan Urryii

The Member List of the External Evaluation Committee
Members from Overseas
BAUMJOHANN, Wolfgang

Director, Space Research Institute,
Austrian Academy of Sciences

BONNAL, Christophe

Senior Expert, Deputy to the Technical Director,
Technical Directorate, CNES

GU, Yidong

Professor, Senior Consultant,General Establishment of Space Science and Application,
Academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences

MINSTER, Olivier

Head of Physical Science Unit
Directorate of Human Spaceﬂight and Operations, ESA

SCHRIMPF, Ron

Orrin Henry Ingram Professor of Engineering,Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department,
Vanderbilt University

SQUYRES, Steve W.

Professor, Department of Astronomy, Cornell University

URRY, Megan C.

Israel Munson Professor of Physics and Astronomy,
Chair of Department of Physics,
Director of Yale Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Yale University

ZARKO, Vladimir E.

Professor, Head of Laboratory of Condensed Systems Combustion,
Institute of Chemical Kinetics and Combustion,
Russian Academy of Sciences

Members from Japan
HOTATE, Kazuo

Professor, University of Tokyo

KAMAE, Tsuneyoshi

Professor Emeritus, University of Tokyo
Professor Emeritus, Stanford University

KAWAMURA, Hiroshi

President, Tokyo University of Science, Suwa

KOBATAKE, Hidefumi

President, Institute of National Colleges of Technology

MUROYAMA, Tetsuya

Executive Commentator, NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation)

OKANO, Shoichi

Professor Emeritus, Tohoku University
Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii

SOMA, Yoshie

Special Adviser to President, Kobe University

YASAKA, Tetsuo

Professor Emeritus, Kyushu Universityiii

Contents
Prefacei

Committee Member listiii

Executive Summary

1

1 Comments and Recommendations
1.1 Achievements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.1.1 Overall activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.1.2 Scientiﬁc activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.1.3 Engineering activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.2 Graduate Education and Inter-University System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.3 General education and public outreach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.4 Space projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.4.1 Does basic research at ISAS lead to important new space science/engineering
missions? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.4.2 Are space projects generating signiﬁcant scientiﬁc and engineering results inbasic research? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.4.3 Are space projects conducted with suﬃcient international collaborations andis ISAS taking signiﬁcant roles in the international space science progress? . .
1.4.4 Are the science/engineering areas covered by ISAS projects appropriate compared to its purpose and resources? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.5 Important features of ISAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.5.1 Autonomy of researchers in selection of research topics . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.5.2 Bottom-up system for the mission selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.5.3 Collaboration with universities - inter-university research system . . . . . . .
1.5.4 International collaboration and exchanges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.5.5 On-site advanced education in space-science program . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.6 ISAS in JAXA and relations to higher-level organizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.6.1 Is ISAS producing enough results as an institution in JAXA? . . . . . . . . .
1.6.2 Is ISAS contributing to other organizations of JAXA and/or conducting
enough collaboration with other organizations in JAXA? . . . . . . . . . . .
1.7 Other comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.7.1 ISS and Earth observation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.7.2 Scientiﬁc ballooning and sounding rockets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.7.3 Relation with industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.7.4 Organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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2 Comments by the Individual Members
2.1 Comments by BAUMJOHANN, Wolfgang . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.2 Comments by BONNAL, Christophe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.3 Comments by GU, Yidong . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.4 Comments by MINSTER, Olivier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.5 Comments by SCHRIMPF, Ron . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.6 Comments by SQUYRES, Steven W. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.7 Comments by URRY, Megan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.8 Comments by ZARKO, V. E. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.9 Comments by HOTATE, Kazuo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.10 Comments by KAMAE, Tsuneyoshi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.11 Comments by KAWAMURA, Hiroshi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.12 Comments by KOBATAKE, Hidefumi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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2.13 Comments by MUROYAMA, Tetsuya . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.14 Comments by OKANO, Shoichi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.15 Comments by SOMA, Yoshie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.16 Comments by YASAKA, Tetsuo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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A Activities of the External Evaluation Committee

44

B List of Materials to the External Evaluation Committee

46v

Executive Summary

1) Achievement: The level of achievement of ISAS is very high, both in absolute terms and incomparison to researchers throughout the world. Evidence of this conclusion:(a) high production of scientiﬁc and technical papers;(b) competitive missions, in many cases world-leading;(c) increasing international collaborations , with Japanese leadership in some cases.
2) Bottom-up process and large missions: We note the success of the long-standing ISAS
bottoms-up process using inter-university system for developing projects, which has led ISAS tochoose the optimal research direction for Japanese space science. At the same time, the more
top-down call for expertise to foresee and mitigate scientiﬁc and engineering challenges may
also be eﬀective. In either case, large, L-class missions will pose a challenge, since the ﬁxed (ordecreasing) ISAS budget means a decreasing launch frequency. In any case, closer coordination
between scientiﬁc and engineering groups is needed to ensure that new activities and missions
reﬂect the highest scientiﬁc priorities as well as feasible technologies.
3) Inter-university system – further improvement: ISAS has pioneered the inter-university
model of cooperative research in space science. This brings many professors and students towork on space projects collectively, in a bottoms-up process that collects the largest possible setof ideas.
(a) Considering the eﬀective available human resources, many of the tasks currently performedin ISAS could be performed by or in close collaboration with researchers in universities,
which could take responsibility at a much higher level. Among other advantages, it compensates somewhat for the decline in manpower.
(b) Not all professors working in collaboration with ISAS are duly recognized (for their collaboration) by their own universities, where they might be seen as working for ISAS. Clearly, tobe successful this inter-university scheme needs equal cooperation from the university side.
4) International cooperation: ISAS has an established and laudable tradition of international
cooperation, with increasing leadership from the Japanese side. The participation of ISAS in
ESA and NASA projects, and vice-versa, attests to the prominent role of Japan in international
space science. It is important that Japanese priorities and interests be discussed in bilateraltalks between ISAS/JAXA and ESA, NASA, etc., in order to enable an eﬀective international
planning process.
5) The International Top Postdoctoral Fellows program: The International Top Postdoctoral Fellows program has been a great success. It brings talented scientists to ISAS, increases
the scientiﬁc productivity of the Institute, and increases international visibility of ISAS throughmore visitors and exchanges. This has been an extremely cost eﬀective way to internationalize
Japanese space science and engineering.
6) External research funding: ISAS has been quite successful in bringing in external funding
for research, especially from the Japan Society for Promotion of Science (JSPS) through Grantin-Aids. However larger-scale grants like the World Premier Institution program is directed
more toward universities. If a university collaborating closely with ISAS is selected for such amajor program, ISAS will also receive beneﬁt indirectly.

17) Public outreach – telling stories to the public: ISAS has much increased public visibility
during the past years, yet even more exposure of ISAS activities to the public remains necessary.
Visibility into the actual process of how space science projects progress is likely to be interestingand informative to the general public. We suggest that ISAS consider telling this story to the
public, to improve their understanding of the broad scope of space science and to impress upon
taxpayers the extreme selectivity with which their Yens are carefully used. It might even be
possible to open internal committee deliberations that are now closed.
8) Decline of budget and research personnel: In the 2007 report, a steady decline of thebudget, in real terms, was noted as a major concern. We echo that concern. Moreover, theeﬀective number of ISAS research personnel has decreased further because of their involvementin other JAXA directorates. These two trends combined present serious risks to completingon-going missions successfully and carrying out research after launch.
9) Relationship to higher-level organizations: The relationship of ISAS to other JAXA directorates/sections, MEXT and the larger Japanese government remains confusing to the committee, in part because of overlapping roles and personnel among the various entities.
Although we note that ISAS performance is extremely high, clarifying the relationships would bevaluable in various aspects. We have concerns that major reforms in space development/utilization
structure might endanger this well-established level of success. We recommend clarifying theroles of ISAS and the Lunar Exploration group in carrying out planetary missions.
10) ISAS within JAXA: Increasingly ISAS is asked to adopt a JAXA-wide practice of rotating
new personnel through multiple assignments. This has many virtues in general, but can bedamaging to projects where sustained expertise is needed, as demonstrated by past successes.
In Japan, the “rotation scheme” has been executed uniformly in the government oﬃces andmajor corporations. If a similar “rotation scheme” is enforced in ISAS, key expertise sustainedby a very few people — or even a single person — will be easily lost. It is vital to haveknowledgeable technicians, engineers and scientists to ensure project success.
ISAS’s role for training graduate students can be expanded to the training and education ofyoung engineers and scientists in JAXA in general. Speciﬁc examples are scientiﬁc ballooning
and sounding rocket projects which enable young people to learn end-to-end space projectprocedures. Duplications on basic research exist among diﬀerent JAXA branches. Players ofeach R&D items should be identiﬁed at JAXA level and ISAS should take the role to do thebasic research on behalf of JAXA.
11) Conclusions: The External Committee recognizes that ISAS has, since its inception, pursued
world-class original research in both science and engineering, with its unique structure for decision making, management and collaboration with other universities. The structure continues
to prevail today under the parent organization JAXA, however with certain changes necessitated. The Committee found a number of elements that will enable ISAS continue the high-level
performance in pursuing space programs, as well as other elements that could further its alreadyestablished fame as a leading international space science institute. The Committee expects thatthe expertise and dedication of the ISAS staﬀ will ensure that ﬁne past achievements extend
well into the future, revealing the wonder of space science that beneﬁts all mankind.

2

1
1.1
1.1.1

Comments and Recommendations

Achievements
Overall activities

The ISAS report includes a very impressive list of achievements in a signiﬁcant number of domains,both scientiﬁc and technological, and serving and beneﬁtting a no less impressive number of successful missions. For an institution of its size, with the given funding and manpower, the overall
activities at ISAS can only be summed up as excellent.
ISAS has successfully “internationalized” its activities even further and most research is donein international collaboration, with ISAS in a leading role in several important projects. The committee believes that the ISAS Director General and his/her leadership team continue to emphasize
the highest level of internationally competitive science.
1.1.2

Scientiﬁc activities

The scientiﬁc output1 of ISAS has grown steadily during the past years. Normalized to size it is on
par with that of other prominent space agencies, and the citation rate is well above world average.
Thus, the scientiﬁc activities must be rated excellent.
It should be noted, however, that those groups/projects at ISAS with stronger international
collaboration contribute more to this success.
1.1.3

Engineering activities

The engineering activities are very impressive (keeping the size and budget of ISAS in mind) andthe ﬁnal success of the Hayabusa mission, after overcoming several diﬃculties and hurdles, is aprominent example of the excellent quality of the engineering activities at ISAS.
However, the ISAS report did not present a clear programmatic path for these activities as awhole. The committee is concerned about stronger coordinated planning eﬀorts between “Engineering” and “Science,” which could enhance these already very impressive activities even further.
Furthermore, ISAS is suggested to have stronger collaboration with Japanese universities and industries in engineering activities.

1.2

Graduate Education and Inter-University System

The academic mission of ISAS is central to the identity of ISAS within JAXA. Indeed, the committee
believes the strong academic spirit of the Institute is vital to the originality and excellence of its
space science activities.
Speciﬁcally, researchers at ISAS are appointed and evaluated on the basis of their research
performance and leadership, like faculty at world-class universities. This practice contributes tothe academic environment and to the high morale among ISAS researchers.
The inter-university cooperative system, which capitalizes on the academic culture of ISAS,
beneﬁts both ISAS and JAXA, with ISAS serving a valuable function as the focus of academic
contact for JAXA. The committee recommends ISAS build on this connection, exploring ways tofund R&D activities for ISAS projects at universities.
In addition to connecting leading scholars working across Japan, ISAS provides preeminent
training opportunities for students and postdoctoral scholars, who represent the future. The excellent reputation of ISAS helps attract the strongest possible young people, and their participationin advanced research projects contributes to the quality of their training. We note that the numberof Ph.D. students per faculty member at ISAS is somewhat small by international standards. One
1

Here.“scientific output” refers to output of “space science” in the narrow definition, according to footnote 2 insection 1.1 of “Report of ISAS/JAXA Activities Prepared for the Visiting Evaluation Committee”.

3way of enlarging the graduate student cohort would be to create new opportunities to bring visiting
graduate students from abroad.
The International Top Postdoctoral Fellows program has been extremely successful in attracting
the most promising young researchers to ISAS. The advantage to ISAS is obvious: they bring broad
expertise from other top international laboratories. However, the number of participants remains
relatively small, whereas we believe the role of ISAS in training and mentoring post-docs should
be strengthened.
In general, ISAS beneﬁts greatly from interactions with visiting scientists. Accordingly, ISAS
should provide more research space and accommodation facilities for such visitors. This is a very
cost-eﬀective way of extending the reach and inﬂuence of ISAS and JAXA.

1.3

General education and public outreach

General education and public outreach are organized and conducted by ISAS in an excellent andeﬃcient manner, and their activities are at an adequate level. There are many activities such as
open houses, free campus tours, exhibitions, public lectures, etc. Beautiful, readable and easy-tounderstand materials including video disks provide visitors with useful and attractive information.
ISAS open house days introduce the public and school children to space science. For example,
after the ISAS exhibition hall opened, the citizens of Sagamihara and other cities learned ﬁrsthandabout Japanese achievements in space research, including the history and design of satellites andspacecraft. Unfortunately the exhibition room is a little small.
It would be very useful for ISAS to generate educational materials that would help school
teachers introduce space science into their classrooms. This could in principle leverage the ISAS
public outreach activity to more schools than can visit the exhibition hall. Another way to increase
leverage would be to hold occasional workshops for school teachers, with ISAS lecturers presenting
ideas that can be taken back to large numbers of students in their classrooms.
Of course, annual festivals on space exploration topics are valuable for inspiring young children
directly. Similarly, 1– 2 advanced public schools could be invited to attend lectures by ISAS
professors, some of whom might then choose to supervise summer research projects for particularly
talented students.

1.4
1.4.1

Space projects
Does basic research at ISAS lead to important new space science/engineering
missions?

The basic research done at ISAS appears well focused on the ongoing and future program.
For possible future missions, basic research activity is strong in areas where ISAS has a long
tradition of success (e.g., X-ray astronomy), but less strong in possible new areas (e.g., Mars
exploration). Also, given the success of Hayabusa and the future emphasis on Hayabusa 2, thelack of basic research in planetary materials at ISAS is noteworthy and should be corrected. ISAS
could perhaps beneﬁt from adopting a strategic planning approach in which high-priority areas ofresearch and potential associated missions are identiﬁed and developed in parallel.
Because ISAS researchers are increasingly busy even as projects grow bigger, it would be valuable to engage more researchers outside ISAS in the projects. On the engineering side, such eﬀorts
have been modest to date.
1.4.2

Are space projects generating signiﬁcant scientiﬁc and engineering results inbasic research?

Using bibliometric analyses of scientiﬁc impact, the average impact of ISAS scientiﬁc papers is
signiﬁcantly above the global average. ISAS greatest impact by far is in the area of Astronomy
and Astrophysics. The normalized research productivity at ISAS is good relative to other Japanese
research institutions.
4ISAS researchers are somewhat oversubscribed with administrative duties and sometimes cannot
spare the substantial amount of time required for analyzing data. On some occasions, ISAS will
have to seek cooperation from non-ISAS scientists in order to respond to growing demands forexpertise.
1.4.3

Are space projects conducted with suﬃcient international collaborations andis ISAS taking signiﬁcant roles in the international space science progress?

ISAS has maintained a strong record of international participation in space missions. This isparticularly true in areas where ISAS is traditionally strong, including astrophysics and space
physics. Typically this participation has taken the form of moderate-sized contributions to missions
led by other partners, or moderate-sized contributions by international partners to ISAS missions.
For ISAS-based international programs, these interactions are going quite well. For US or
Europe-based projects, they rely heavily on postdoctoral scholars and non-ISAS collaborators. It
would be good to see senior ISAS scientists taking leading roles in data analyses.
Some areas of space science can be addressed only by large projects that require broader international collaboration. Valuable steps are being taken in this direction with missions like the
MMO contribution to BepiColombo. Some hoped-for future projects may require the forging ofmajor new international partnerships in order to come to fruition. In order for this to happen, ISAS
should identify speciﬁc potential international partnerships that can then be discussed at bilateralmeetings between JAXA and other major space agencies.
1.4.4

Are the science/engineering areas covered by ISAS projects appropriate compared to its purpose and resources?

ISAS is doing its best to carry out its main responsibilities of ISAS-based projects, within thepresent constraints. In the future it will be necessary to collaborate more with outside laboratories
or organizations, and/or to develop greater in-house capacity through an increasing budget.

1.5
1.5.1

Important features of ISAS
Autonomy of researchers in selection of research topics

The committee feels strongly about maintaining the autonomy of researchers in selecting their
theme of research, as this enables the initiation of new, original ideas. This is particularly true
for young and brilliant researchers who should be encouraged to follow their excellent ideas whileat the same time being coached in deﬁning and developing new missions. Every mission must
eventually pass the ﬁlter of a thorough and competent review in terms of both scientiﬁc excellence
and technology feasibility and aﬀordability. The independent review system to monitor and advise
ISAS activities should ensure that all aspects of a proposed mission are thoroughly assessed.
The committee believes that these basic principles are adequately respected in the current ISAS
organization and procedures.
1.5.2

Bottom-up system for the mission selection

Working Groups, which can be proposed and selected by the steering committees at any time,
have the responsibility for performing pre-phase A studies followed by fully-ﬂedged proposals in
response to an ISAS Announcements of Opportunity. The proposals are then reviewed by therelevant steering committee, which presents its recommendations to ISAS, where the ﬁnal decision
is made. This approach leads to the highest scientiﬁc quality and most ingenious technology because
it leverages the expertise and vast knowledge of a broad array of researchers in formulating new
approaches and projects.
The committee nevertheless felt that more Working Groups deserve to be supported and at thesame time, that the budget allocated to each Working Group should be enhanced so as to provide
5a better chance of success to bolder ideas.
The committee also stresses that the review process should as far as possible involve bothscience and engineering steering committees, in order to avoid the selection of missions that are too
challenging technologically or of technologies with low scientiﬁc priority. The current compositionof the steering committees — half internal, half external — ensures both competence and relative
independence in these reviews.
1.5.3

Collaboration with universities - inter-university research system

Institutes without walls are very eﬀective in attracting additional (external) resources to a common
project, and the Working Groups eﬃciently achieve this goal in a natural way. The wisdom of
researchers from both space science and engineering ﬁelds is required.
The committee therefore strongly recommends extending the ISAS-established inter-university
research system to other basic research and mission planning activities within JAXA. All Japanese
universities with appropriate expertise should be invited to participate, as this would facilitate theprogress of science and increase public awareness of space science.
ISAS should also consider developing ways to involve institutions outside of Japan in similar
collaborations.
1.5.4

International collaboration and exchanges

International collaboration and recognition is a valuable metric for assessing the impact of ISAS
programs. Speciﬁcally, the extent to which the international science and engineering community
adopts ISAS innovations and recognizes ISAS achievements reﬂects the Institution’s impact.
Furthermore, the eagerness of international researchers to spend time at ISAS, either as visitors
or as employees (for example, the International Top Postdoctoral Fellows) is a reﬂection of theinternational standing of ISAS in the research hierarchy.
Therefore, ISAS leadership should have the goal of achieving the highest possible level of international recognition, by emphasizing internationally competitive science endeavors. Internationalization of personnel is likely to enhance this global recognition.
1.5.5

On-site advanced education in space-science program

The success of ISAS in training graduate students is highly commendable. The committee therefore
recommends that this graduate education program be continued and, if possible, increased in size.
The committee further applauds ISAS for its role in training and mentoring postdoctoral scholars.
The committee would like to see more young researchers come to ISAS from Japan and beyond,as this increases the Institute’s international visibility, brings it new expertise and energy, and leads
to the highest possible quality.
Tracking postdoctoral scholars following their ISAS appointments, at least through the next
appointment, will be useful for evaluating how eﬀectively the ISAS experience prepares young
researchers as scientists and/or engineers.

1.6

ISAS in JAXA and relations to higher-level organizations

1.6.1

Is ISAS producing enough results as an institution in JAXA?

ISAS is producing outstanding results as the main space science research institution in Japan.
This is particularly true when considering the amount of funding and the number of staﬀ ofISAS. ISAS productivity is clearly very high, no matter how one measures scientiﬁc production,
quantity and quality.
Notably, at the international level the prominence and visibility of ISAS are very clear. Just
one obvious sign is the impressive number of ISAS-involved publications in international journals
done by international collaborators.
6

We believe the international reputation of ISAS adds value to JAXA. Indeed, JAXA can beproud of the quality of the work of ISAS and may wish to take advantage of its success by continuing,
and if possible extending, the domain of activities of ISAS to other areas of science and engineering
at JAXA.
Some research items are pursued by more than one branch of JAXA, for instance, propellant
movement in zero gravity is done at least in 3 diﬀerent branches. It is recommended at JAXA levelto know who is doing what in R&D, and it would be advised that ISAS does basic research on
behalf of JAXA.
1.6.2

Is ISAS contributing to other organizations of JAXA and/or conducting enoughcollaboration with other organizations in JAXA?

1.6.2.1 Relation between ISAS and the Lunar and Planetary Exploration GroupJAXA has reorganized its structure so that the current and future lunar and planetary exploration
missions are managed by the Lunar and Planetary Exploration Group.2 At the same time, ISAS has
carried out several solar system exploration missions (Sakigake/Suisei, Hiten, Nozomi, Hayabusa,
and Kaguya until 2008); is presently operating Akatsuki (Venus climate mission); and is developing
MMO for the
BepiColombo mission to Mercury. The Department of Solar System Science at ISAS is carryingout solar, solar-system and planetary science research and studying future missions. The scientists
in this department and in the departments of space ﬂight systems and spacecraft engineering at
ISAS have been and will be involved in the future solar system missions.
The committee understands that many (both the public and government) wish to see more solar
system exploration missions, which along with concerns about an increasing number of cancellations
helped motivate the reorganization. However, it is not clear how responsibility for future planetary
exploration missions is shared between the Lunar and Planetary Exploration Group and ISAS.
For example, some missions such as BepiColombo are currently the responsibility of ISAS, while
Hayabusa-2 is the responsibility of the Lunar and Planetary Exploration Group.
We understand that roughly 40 ISAS researchers are working partially for the Lunar and Planetary Exploration Group while continuing their work at ISAS. The unclear lines of responsibility
inherent in this arrangement adds risk to the lunar and planetary exploration program for boththe Lunar and Planetary Exploration Group and its partner department in ISAS.
The committee recommends that ISAS and JAXA together:(A) clarify the mission of the Lunar and Planetary Exploration Group, and(B) show a clear management structure that allows experience accumulated at ISAS be fully utilized in the future missions such as MMO, Hayabusa 2 or Selene 2.
1.6.2.2 Expansion of ISAS
ISAS has a demonstrated record of success in space science and engineering. Accordingly, thecommittee believes JAXA would beneﬁt from expanding (or at a minimum, maintaining) the current
ISAS portfolio. The committee further believes that, in order to keep its world-class standing incarrying out scientiﬁc missions, ISAS should receive an increased budget from the government.
According to the “JAXA vision” for the next 25 years, science represents 8.9% of the JAXA
budget, which is small compared to other world-leading space agencies (e.g., for ESA the budget
fraction devoted to science is 12%). Therefore the committee feels the fraction of the JAXA budget
dedicated to science, at ISAS, should be increased. Furthermore, it is important that the budget
be stable, to enable long-term planning and execution of missions.
The committee recommends that:
2

The Lunar and Planetary Exploration Group was created at the Directorate level of JAXA in 2007. It waspreviously called JAXA’s Space Exploration Center, and is sometimes referred to as JSPEC, an abbreviation of theold name.

7

(A) JAXA secure a higher budget for Space Sciences from government;(B) ISAS, within JAXA, secure a larger share of the budget for sciences;(C) a clear vision be developed for the space science budget over the medium term, based onprogram plans;(D) ISAS and JAXA seek more international cooperation to enable more ambitious projects.
1.6.2.3 Visibility of Space Science and ISAS at National level
The visibility of Space Science and ISAS at the national level is not enough. As the ﬁnancial
situation in Japan is more and more severe, there should be an increased eﬀort to explain topoliticians and taxpayers the importance and relevance of space science in general, and ISAS andJAXA projects in particular. The required funding can be motivated by explaining the importantrole played by the space sciences in building a prosperous society. Increasing outreach eﬀorts by
ISAS, especially in highly leveraged ways (e.g., through the media), is therefore a wise investment.

1.7
1.7.1

Other comments
ISS and Earth observation

The committee proposes that ISAS strengthen its collaborations with other organizations within
JAXA, to expand and obtain more support for space science activities. Research on microgravity
environments using the International Space Station is conducted by ISAS under the inter-university
research system, while the ISS itself is the responsibility of the Human Space Systems and Utilization Mission Directorate within JAXA.
The committee recommends that ISAS participate more actively in the ISS program, to increase
opportunities for space environment utilization science and new technology demonstrations using
the ISS.
ISAS is not involved in Earth observations so far. The committee suggests ISAS start collaborations in this area with the related JAXA organizations.
1.7.2

Scientiﬁc ballooning and sounding rockets

Scientiﬁc ballooning and sounding rockets are a very cost eﬀective research tool and a valuable
test-bed for developing new technologies. ISAS has been conducting scientiﬁc ballooning missions
in the Antarctic since the 1990s; this should be continued and expanded. A balloon facility has
been built in Inner Mongolia by the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It is hoped that discussions
with the Chinese Academy of Sciences concerning possible collaborations could be successful.
In the past, sounding rockets established a foundation of space science and technologies in Japan.
At present they still play a role as an eﬃcient tool not only for technology advancement but also
for training personnel in broad ﬁelds of science, technology and management. It is recommended
that this area should be augmented, enabling more launch opportunities with the addition of extra
funding, which will be small compared to those in other activity areas of ISAS and JAXA.
1.7.3

Relation with industry

The importance of close contacts between ISAS and industry must be emphasized, since this collaboration is essential for successful space missions. The feedback from the space engineering activityof ISAS to Japanese industry is also important.
1.7.4

Organization

The committee would like to suggest a few steps that might be considered by ISAS for furthering
recognition as a world-leading space research institute:8

(1) Add senior researchers who have extensive international experiences and will lead large-scaleinternational collaborations. These scientists may be recruited from outside of ISAS or outsideof Japan.
(2) Increment the number of woman researchers, as their absence suggests a potential waste ofavailable talent.

92Comments by the Individual Members

Evaluation Items(1) Has ISAS yielded suﬃcient results so far? Please evaluate items (a)-(c) individually.
One of important aspect is international collaborations. Please also comment on this; e.g.
whether basic research is conducted with suﬃcient international collaborations and whether
ISAS is taking signiﬁcant roles in the international space science and space engineering researches.
(just rating excellent (S), good (A), fair (B), poor (C), and/or comments)(a) Overall activities (please see sections 4-9 of the ISAS report. )(b) ‘Scientiﬁc” activities (please see sections 4, 5 and 9 of the ISAS report.)(c) Engineering activities (please see sections 6-9 of the ISAS report.)(2) Graduate education is one of the important missions of ISAS. Has ISAS yielded suﬃcient resultsin graduate education? (please see section1.7 of the ISAS report.)(just rating S A B C and/or comments)(3) General education and public outreach (E&PO) are also important to promote space science.
Has ISAS yielded suﬃcient results in E&PO? (please see section1.8 of the ISAS report.)(just rating S A B C and/or comments)(4) Space projects are most important elements in promoting space science. Please comment on
ISAS activities with emphasis on the following aspects:(just rating S A B C and/or comments)(a) Are basic researches conducted aiming at future important space science/engineering missions?
(b) Are space projects generating signiﬁcant scientiﬁc and engineering results in basic research?
(c) Are space projects conducted with suﬃcient international collaborations and is ISAS taking
signiﬁcant roles in the international space science progress?
(d) Are the science/engineering areas covered by the ISAS projects appropriate compared toits purpose and resources?
(5) How do you evaluate the following important features of ISAS, which were highly recommended
to keep by the visiting review committee in 2007?
ISAS considers it important to keep and enhance those features.
(a) Autonomy of researchers in selection of research topics (please see Executive Summary 2of 2007 evaluation report, and section 1.6 of the ISAS report.)(b) Bottom-up system for the mission selection (please see Executive Summary 3 of 2007
evaluation report, and section 1.6 of the ISAS report.)(c) On-site education in space-science program (please see Executive Summary 4, 5 of 2007
evaluation report, and section 1.7 of the ISAS report.)(d) Collaboration with universities - inter-university research system (please see Executive
Summary 5 of 2007 evaluation report, and section 1.6 of the ISAS report.)10(6) ISAS in JAXA (please see Executive Summary 6, 11 of 2007 evaluation report, and sections
1.4, 1.5, and 1.6.4 of the ISAS report.)(a) ISAS is producing enough results as an institution in JAXA?
(b) ISAS is contributing to other organizations of JAXA and/or conducting enough collaboration with other organizations in JAXA
(7) Other comments

11

2.1

Comments by BAUMJOHANN, Wolfgang

Two comments from my side to begin with(A) The statistical data (summary data on personnel, budget, intl. collaboration, “output”, etc.)
are only given for ISAS as a whole. Reading the report, I got some impression that ratings would
be diﬀerent for diﬀerent departments/divisions, but cannot substantiate for lack of information.
(B) It is unclear to me why ISAS covers human spaceﬂight activities on the ISS but not unmanned“Exploration”, which would be closer to the “classical” ISAS activities(1) (a) S,very impressive for an institution of its size.
(b) Overall S,
but there might be groups with A. (see comment A above)(c) To a non-engineer like me, the engineering activities look very impressive (keeping the sizeand budget of ISAS in mind). Thus I would rate a somewhat unqualiﬁed S.
However, I do not always see a clear programmatic path: perhaps a closer cooperation
between ”Engineering” and ”Science” in planning would help.
(2) S(3) S,
very impressive, in particular the steep positive gradient (see p.32 of report)(4) (a) S,
in general.
(b) S, in general.
(c) Overall S, but there seem to be projects with little international collaboration (see comment
A above).
(d) S, but see my comment A above.
(5) (a) S,
but selection of SPICA might endanger that (since it will need a large fraction of ISAS
resources and might endanger the highly successful 1 launch/year tradition)(b) S,
but selection of SPICA might endanger that
(c) S
(d) S
(6) (a) S,
but see comment A above(b) Cannot really judge based on the information available
(7)

12

2.2

Comments by BONNAL, Christophe(1) (a) S
Exceptional quality of activities for the given funding and manpower.
Impressive reputation at international level(b) S
Excellent scientiﬁc program in both Astronomy & Astrophysics, and Solar System domains(c) A
Excellent results, mainly thanks to the quality of demonstrations (propulsion, RRV, …)Potentially lack of international cooperations Potentially duplication of activities within
JAXA; ISAS should be more clearly in charge of Research on basic technologies such as
propulsion, aerodynamics,…
(2) S
The structure of the links between ISAS and University is excellent, second to none, giving
remarkable results. To be noted, the exceptional reputation of ISAS among the Students(3) S
Outstanding results according to the report on JAXA Space Education Center, distributed
wednesday evening.
(4) (a) A
All the selected subjects appear to be of prime interest, but some other key domains
could beneﬁt from research at ISAS (mainly heavy liquid propulsion, GNC…); it should beclariﬁed why ISAS is not in charge more generally of all the technical topics of JAXA withlow TRL (1 to 5 for instance), JAXA being then in charge of developments. The sharingof activities between JAXA and ISAS should be clariﬁed(b) S
Yes, undoubtedly, the results generated by ISAS are references at world level, in bothscientiﬁc and engineering domains.
(c) A
Several domains could beneﬁt from a larger opening to international cooperation in the engineering domains, mainly in the domain of technologies, aerodynamics, propulsion, RRV,…
(d) A
Some domains have unclear boundaries with JAXA, and I would like to discuss this during
the evaluation meetings. ISAS should be in charge more generally of all activities of science,research and technology, technological demonstrators in all the ﬁelds covered by the Agency,
the pre-development, development, exploitation being of JAXA responsibility. Associatedto this, the resources should be increased (or rebalanced from JAXA) to cope with thisgeneral span of activities.
(5) (a) A
The report seems to cover correctly the concern of the evaluation in 2007, even though I
am not convinced there should be full autonomy of young professionals. It shall bebased on their interest, but with a re-centering coming from the strategic orientations
and roadmaps from Steering Committees of ISAS (and JAXA)(b) A
The selection process is well described, and appears quite classical. The proﬁle of themembers of Advisory Council for Research and Management is not clear, and it could begood to have at least one representative of students in the Steering Committees. It is not13

clear who performs the ﬁrst evaluation after proposal to President of JAXA, is it the Boardof Councilors ? The kind of ﬁle proposed after a Phase-A study to the Committee is notclear: what means similar to a MDR and SRR ? Is it normalized within ISAS of JAXA
? Do you hold formal reviews at this step (and after) ? In the Steering Committee forSpace Engineering, there could be representatives of Space Industry (MHI, IHI, …) as they
will be the end users.
(c) SOn site education appears perfect, and clearly increasing compared to previous years(d) A
Collaboration with universities appear very good, but the evaluator is not in position tojudge the relevance of the selected universities. How do you select them ? Do they cover
all the network of space-related high education in Japan, or only a sub-share ?
(6) (a) S
ISAS is producing outstanding results, both in the absolute and when considering funding+ staﬀ. JAXA shall be proud of the quality of the work of ISAS. It is proposed to consider
an extension of this work and structure to other JAXA topics relevant to science, R&T
and demonstrators Relation with JSPEC is very unclear(b) A
During the meeting, links between ISAS and JAXA on topics such as Propulsion, GNC,
Avionics were clariﬁed… mainly in the frame of the Epsilon launcher and of the RRVtechnologies, but it clearly shows that a larger role should be given to ISAS for low TRL
technologies(7) I have the feeling the border of the ISAS activities with other JAXA activities is not clear.
The are similar domains of research in the engineering ﬁeld with apparent duplications (liquid
propulsion, aerodynamics, …).
It could be useful to state clearly the ISAS shall be in charge of the Science and R&T for
JAXA globally, pushing the technologies to TRL 5 or so, including in-orbit demonstration isapplicable; then, projects shall be led elsewhere in JAXA, for instance in Space Transportation
Directorate.

14

2.3

Comments by GU, Yidong(1) (a) During the past 40 years, including last four years since 2008, ISAS has made signiﬁcantachievements in many important areas of space science. ISAS also achieved outstanding
results in all aspects of its activity, which makes ISAS a world-famous, highly-eﬃcient,unique, active and high-level space research institution. I am impressed by its obvious
virtues of:- In general view, layout of space science activities at ISAS is rational, also with clear
context, reasonable strategies and roadmap for future development. The major focuses ofscience are highlighted.
- ISAS has developed modern space exploration technology involving spacecraft, launcher,especially advanced main instrument for science mission with his own distinguished features. The projects have achieved signiﬁcant results.
- It is rare in the world, that the means of satellites and carrier rockets, sounding rockets
and scientiﬁc balloons, are jointly used for science exploration and technology test in one
institute. This is one of the advantages of ISAS, thus it becomes an institute that attracts
the scientists.
- ISAS has deep research in space science and engineering. Active and innovative thinking
make it a world-class institution. The leading role of the academic research is obviously.
The academic research, science missions and the technology development join closely andpromote each other, so that virtuous circle is formed.
- ISAS activities measured from bibliographic materials show, that science & engineering
output is signiﬁcant. Considering the number of staﬀ and constraint of budget, ISAS is an
institution of high eﬃciency, and it has made great eﬀorts for the existing achievements.
Excellent-S(b) I highly evaluate scientiﬁc activities at ISAS. They cover most of areas of space science.
Scientiﬁc research aims at the direction of the forefront of space science and serious scientiﬁc challenges.
- Space science research with high quality is closely dependent on space observation andexperiment. ISAS has launched and planned a number of advanced X-ray, infrared, radio
astronomical satellites, solar space observatories, moon, planets, asteroid probes, as well as
the facilities on board of the ISS / JEM for astronomy, micro-gravity science and life science, etc. These observations and experiments either ﬁll the observation gaps, or face newchallenges. These missions provide latest data to scientiﬁc community. Furthermore, thefuture satellite programs and other space missions indicate that its eﬀort will be continued
and extended.
- The scientiﬁc satellite program at ISAS is sustainable, practical, smart and rich in scientiﬁc output.
- Active, free atmosphere of academic research and in-depth study lead ISAS to be a toplevel institution.
Excellent-S(c) - Engineering activities at ISAS is eﬀective. A number of new technologies are developed.
The impressive ones are: Sample-return and re-entry technology for asteroid exploration,
Solar sail technology is used for the deep space exploration for the ﬁrst time, etc.
- ISAS take care on advance arrangement of exploration and detecting technologies for theimportant scientiﬁc task, pre-study of key technologies for future missions, as well as new
materials and up-to-date IT utilization in space engineering.
- In the scientiﬁc balloon activities that I m familiar with, a very thorough study has done
for the R&D and experimental veriﬁcation on the super pressure balloons from” Pumpkin, ” Tawara ” to the balloon with diamond-shaped net. It seems to be a correct solution tosuper pressure balloon technology.
Excellent-S
15

(2) -ISAS emphasis on graduate education, with a notable achievement.
- Graduate student education beneﬁts both students and researchers. The advantages of such
system, compared with that in a University, is that graduate education is more close to thefrontier of science and engineering practice, in favor of cultivating professional talents.
- The scale of graduate education at ISAS is smaller. There is no increasing for doctor andmaster degree number for recent years.
Good-A(3) - General education and public outreach of ISAS is diversity. Beautiful, readable and easyto-understand materials including the video desk provide the visitors necessary and attractive
information.
- ISAS open door days attracted public and children to be involved. Well-designed website
provides plenty of information and interpretation. The exhibition in front gate with physicalmodels and practical devices demonstrates vividly. Unfortunately the exhibition room is a little
small.
- A suggestion is that to call for proposal from young student, or prepare educational project &scientiﬁc experiment which could interact with students in, so that they can personally involved
and better motivated in science.
Excellent-S(4) (a) - Profound fundamental research and nice scientiﬁc thought are the most important element for achievements in space projects. Basic researches at ISAS have guided its space
project planning and selection.
- In space astronomy and astrophysics, solar system sciences, microgravity science andspace life science, ISAS has the clear scientiﬁc target, in-depth study and quite good continuity in the research. Aiming at future space mission, ISAS carried out in-depth thetheoretical studies, modeling, data analysis (including the data of international satellites),and so called explorative physics research, as well as a series of simulation.
- On space engineering, focusing future space exploration mission requirement, ISAS conducted a series of research to solve the technique problems for the missions.
Excellent-S(b) The completed and running space projects at ISAS, including satellite, lunar and planetary
probes, as well as research facilities on the ISS/JEM, have achieved remarkable results inthe science and engineering.
- In the ﬁeld of space astronomy and astrophysics involve solar physics, cosmic X-ray
sources, solar terrestrial physics, plasma physics of planet and earth atmosphere. ISAS hasdeveloped and implemented an upgrading series of satellites. Signiﬁcant basic scientiﬁc
research achievements are obtained.
- In the lunar and planetary science, ISAS conducted a series of exploration of planets,
asteroid and comets in solar system. It is very impressive in SELENE, the lunar obiter
mission, including its hard landing, is quite successful, as well as HAYABUSA (MUSES-C),
the asteroid sample-return mission, etc. These are also signiﬁcant basic research achievements- In scientiﬁc exploration and technological method, ISAS has its imagination, and has
made signiﬁcant achievements.
Excellent-S(c) - ISAS international collaboration has further developed both in breadth and depth forrecent years, which makes ISAS become an active and more important partner in theinternational space research. It has played an important role in international projects,
such as the future mission of IXO, SPICA, EXCEED, BepiColombo, etc. It will be asigniﬁcant contribution to science.
- International collaboration activities at ISAS are practical and eﬀective, in academic

16exchange, in future space project and in integrating resources of previous partners.
Excellent-S(d) ISAS activities involve both science and engineering area, and it is just the advantage of
ISAS. Combining the two aspects makes space science in ISAS achieve excellent results.
Science and engineering coverage and distribution at ISAS are reasonable compare with its
purpose and resources in general.
Excellent-S(5) (a) - Autonomy of researchers in selection of research topic is necessary. It is also the basis ofresearch progress. As a research institution, ISAS should continue to maintain his tradition
such as academic environment, freedom discussion. The new idea and innovative thought
should be encouraged.
- As a research institution, ISAS should keep appropriate independence in scientiﬁc project
selection.
(b) - Bottom-up system for the scientiﬁc mission selection is the best method. The ISAS
project selection process is reasonable, that is, AOs - Proposals - Working groups - review
committee - Director General, enter to pre-phase etc. The committee needs to organize
the assessment, including scientiﬁc concept, technique concept and method, as well as therisk and budget.
- It would be helpful to invite more projects to enter Pre-phase A or phase-A, to cultivate
excellent but not mature project and to make the process more competitive. Excellent
space projects then could be selected.
(c) A suggestion is that the number of doctor degree could be increased up to 50% of master
degree in average.
(d) - ISAS is main special organization for Space Science in Japan. Due to its scale limitation,
collaboration with universities is necessary, and it is also an important responsibility. ISAS
maintain a close collaboration with the University system in Japan including academic
research, important projects and graduate education.
- When ISAS was belonging to Ministry of Science and Education, there was a common
utility concept, which I believe is a very clearly presentation regarding the collaboration
with universities. This time, the review document has not stressed on that. I suggest ISAS
could still continue to adhere to this concept and take it as a principle.
(6) (a) ISAS as an sub-organization in JAXA, basically keeps the scientiﬁc and engineering areaand layout. The space science and engineering achievement increases the overall JAXA
science, engineering and technology output, promotes the strength of JAXA as Japan’snational space agency.
(b) ISAS make larger contribution to other organizations of JAXA, and have enough andeﬀective collaboration in satellite missions, lunar exploration mission, microgravity scienceand life science on ISS/JEM with other divisions of JAXA.
(7) 1. More than 40 years since it was established, ISAS has formed its own characteristics and advantages. I suggest that ISAS should maintain his tradition as a research institution, maintainit in the direction of scientiﬁc research, project and mission selection of relative independence,and maintain its vigor in the space science and engineering. On this basis, strengthen thecollaboration with other organizations of JAXA, to take more technical choice and support inspace projects, and to get more opportunities by using ISS/JEM for space mission and newtechnology demonstration.
2. The study of solar physics and solar-terrestrial physics, actually are associated with earthscience, including the global change that international communities are concerning of. As earth
observation does not involving on the area at ISAS, it seems that relationship between earthscience and space physics have not been built up. Suggestion is that proper organization and17arrangement could be considered.
3. whether ISAS is responsible with mission organization tasks on satellite, lunar and deep
space probe. If so the eﬀective engineering management is very important to ensure the quality
and reliability. Report for evaluation should be involved with project management and standard system for hardware and software development.
4. In the future plan, there are many candidate projects. It appears that the majority is ofvery good idea and exciting projects. Some plan is with large scale, so the increasing of budget
and manpower may be considered, or the projects plan should be optimized.
5. Scientiﬁc ballooning is a very eﬀective and low-cost research tool, to strengthen the scientiﬁcballoon activities is proposed. Antarctic balloon ﬂight could take very long duration time say
several ten days. ISAS begin Antarctic scientiﬁc ballooning since 1990 s.It could be continued
and expended. In the terrestrial ﬂight, discussion with Chinese Academy of Sciences for collaboration could be considered in reasonable chance. A balloon facility has been built in Inner
Mongolia by Chinese Academy of Sciences.

18

2.4

Comments by MINSTER, Olivier(1) (a) S:
Judging whether the results are suﬃcient is a very diﬃcult task that would require quantitative criteria, nevertheless the report includes a very impressive list of achievements ina signiﬁcant number of domains, both scientiﬁc and technological and serving or beneﬁting from a no less impressive number of successful missions. Seeing form the bibliometricanalysis provided in the report (of which some graphs would necessitate additional explanations), the output has grown steadily over the last decade, with a citation rate above
world average. It is also noticeable that the number of paper co-authored with institutions outside of Japan is growing steadily as a result of the eﬀorts invested by ISAS intodeveloping international cooperation. JAXA-ISAS have taken a very pro-active position
in developing international coordination and cooperation in the utilization of the International Space Station and in seeking partnership with foreign entities for the realization ofever more complex - and costly space missions.
(b) S:For most activities, and in particular those that this particular reviewer feels more competent in, the scientiﬁc output resulting from the projects endeavored by ISAS is excellent
and is broadly referred to in the communities concerned with them.
(c) There is a large number of very impressive engineering achievements described in the reportpushing forth new high performance, miniaturized technologies to enhance the performanceof future spacecraft and space instruments.
(2) S:The link with external higher education universities and the joint involvement of students
together with ISAS as described in the report is a very sound and eﬃcient way of tying ISAS
activities with those of other researchers in Japan and of contributing to the formation of
students to space activities.
(3) S:ISAS appears to have a very active and very eﬃcient programme to inform the public and toengage young students into space research, or STEM. The ﬁgure announced for the number ofpublic lectures is truly impressive!
(4) (a) In the ﬁelds that this reviewer feels competent to comment on, the research performed by
ISAS are key to deﬁning the objectives and requirements of future space missions. A space
programme running without this body of ground based research would without any doubt
not have the same scientiﬁc impact as the one reached by ISAS. This is a must and thatmust was surely not missed by ISAS.
(b) S:
Again, the bibliometric analysis included in the report shows in a compelling manner thatthe science and engineering level achieved by ISAS is above average. One should not forgetthough that the true impact of such activities take much longer to be realized than thetime span of activities presented in the report.
(c) A:Space projects are becoming increasingly complex and the more brains and resources they
engage, the higher their true chance of high impact. Besides, the future of space as mankind
is visiting farther from Earth is inevitably international. Several initiatives taken by ISAS
in this direction will surely lead to building solid and long term cooperation. This reality is
still confronted with the PI culture that prevails in many countries, but again complexity
and costs will eventually call for larger international teams to deﬁne, prepare and run
projects. The further upstream this concept is brought in, the higher the chance of successof the team and of the mission. In that respect, the concept of leadership is also to be19

challenged as it contradicts cooperation and team spirit. That ISAS encourages Japanesescientists is in this direction is a very promising move; that Japanese scientists take a leadingrole or not could be a matter of cultural background. The experience of this reviewer isthat excellent scientists do not need that kind of stimulation and naturally take the lead.
(d) S:It seems to this reviewer that ISAS is pretty much covering all of the ﬁelds that requirestudies and developments for a broad range of topics and is successfully pursuing uniquecapabilities for future space projects. Since there is no mention of limitations in resourcesthat impede on-going developments, and thereby no question relating to setting up priorities, it is diﬃcult to fully answer this question.
(5) (a) Autonomy is key in research as long as it is guided by proper peer reviewing.
(b) Bottom up is also key to successful scientiﬁc programme. A top down approach is seldommarked by scientiﬁc excellence and innovation.
(c) Hands-on experience at the heart of a project or a mission is undoubtedly the best educationa student can receive. This reviewer has however doubts about the student-only projects
with regards to the inevitably high costs incurred with space projects.
(d) This is the guarantee of scientiﬁc excellence as it pulls together the brains of pure scientists
and of those of professional space scientists who, with experience, naturally tend toconstrain themselves.
(6) (a) What is the quantitative criterion to deﬁne enough? The real question is rather, were thespace results genuinely unique in acquiring new knowledge and were they exploited to thefullest possible extent by a team of scientists with complementary expertise? The teamingof ISAS scientists with partner Japanese universities or with international partners are key
factors to increasing the results and maximizing the scientiﬁc return on investments.
(b) It so appears from the report that increased collaboration of ISAS with other divisions of
JAXA is taking place so that the pool of competences present within the JAXA organizationis adequately contributing to successes.
(7)

20

2.5

Comments by SCHRIMPF, Ron(1) (a) S.
Remarkable productivity for the size of the organization.
(b) S.
Wide ranging activities that cover the key aspects of space science.
(c) A.
Very good quality, although it is diﬃcult to have comprehensive engineering activities inan organization of moderate size.
(2) S.
This is one of the strengths of ISAS. Having multiple ways for graduate students to be involvedin the research is very valuable. The productivity is high.
(3) A.
The number of visitors is very high and the breadth of the outreach is good.
(4) (a) S.
The basic research is well deﬁned and should lead to useful results for future missions.
(b) S.
The quality of the work is high and is well regarded by the international space community.
(c) A.
Very good involvement. It may be possible to increase collaboration with international
universities.
(d) S.
The number of distinct projects is very large for the size of the ISAS team and budget.
(5) (a) I agree that this is very important, as it leads to more creativity and diversity if research
topics.
(b) This seems to be working very well. There may be circumstances in which strong disagreements could arise, but this does not seem to have been a problem so far.
(c) This is an important part of the ISAS mission. The research should be the highest priority,
but educating people about the results and the process is central to the research process.
(d) This is essential. Without leveraging university connections, it would be diﬃcult for ISAS to
have suﬃcient breadth of expertise to cover all relevant aspects of space science/engineering.
Involvement of graduate students promotes technology transfer.
(6) (a) The productivity is very high.
(b) This is important and it appears that ISAS is working to increase its collaboration within
JAXA.
(7) ISAS/JAXA is an extremely strong and productive organization, especially taking into account its size and budget. Strong collaborations with other organizations and involvement of
universities are key elements of the success.

21

2.6

Comments by SQUYRES, Steven W.

(1) (a) Rating: S(b) Rating: S(c) Rating: A(2) Rating: S
for graduate education, but…
Where I think there is some room for improvement is in the area of training and mentoring
postdocs. This is as important as graduate education, and could be a strength for ISAS as
well. Currently, mentoring of postdocs appears to be mostly ad hoc, rather than done in any
organized way.
(3) Rating: S
Given the small size of ISAS, the work in the area of E&PO is excellent. I am particularly
impressed by the way in which the success of the Hayabusa excited and energized the Japanesepublic regarding space exploration.
(4) (a) Rating: A
The basic research done at ISAS appears well matched to the ongoing program of exploration. When comparing the basic research program to possible future missions as
represented by the working groups in Table 1.2, the record is more mixed. ISAS researchis strong for missions in ISAS s traditional areas of strength (e.g., x-ray astronomy), butless strong in possible new areas (e.g., MELOS). ISAS could perhaps beneﬁt from taking
a strategic approach in which high-priority future areas of research strength and potential
related future missions are identiﬁed and then developed in parallel.
(b) Rating: AUsing bibliometric measures of scientiﬁc impact, the average impact of ISAS scientiﬁcpapers is 60% above the global average. This is a good number, but it is also half the valueof the equivalent metric for NASA, so there is room for improvement. ISAS s greatest
impact by far is in the area of Astronomy and Astrophysics. ISAS s normalized research
productivity is good relative to other Japanese research institutions.
(c) Rating: A
ISAS has maintained a strong record of international participation in space missions. Thisis particularly true in areas where ISAS is traditionally strong, including astrophysics andspace physics. Typically this participation has been in the form of moderate-sized contributions to missions led by other partners, or moderate-sized contributions by international
partners to Japanese missions.
In order to make major advances in some areas of space science (planetary surface exploration is an example), involvement in larger projects will be important, necessitating
broader international collaboration. Valuable steps are being taken in this direction withmissions like the MMO contribution to BepiColombo. Some hoped-for future projects(MELOS is an example) may require the forging of major international partnerships inorder to come to fruition.
(d) Rating: S(5) (a) Researchers appear to have considerable autonomy in selection of their research topics.
(b) The process by which missions are selected for ﬂight is strongly bottoms-up. It is also verystrongly committee-driven. The working groups have PIs and budgets; they are essentiallypre-projects. These pre-phase A studies are extremely important - they are essential forminimizing technical problems and cost growth in projects after they enter phase A.
I am somewhat concerned that there are many working groups and relatively little funding

22

for the working group studies. Perhaps it would be good to increase the amount of funding
per working group, either by increasing total funding for working groups or by having fewer
working groups.
(c) ISAS’s strong emphasis on graduate education is important and seems unique within JAXA.
It should be preserved and strengthened. While there clearly is a strong program in place
for training of graduate students, it was less clear that there is a comparable program for
mentoring postdocs.
(d) Collaborations with the University of Tokyo appear to be strong, as would be expected
given the historical relationship there. There may be an opportunity to forge stronger
relationships with other universities in the country, however.
(6) (a) Given the small size of ISAS, its contributions within JAXA are substantial. Given that the
integration of ISAS (and NASDA) into JAXA was fairly recent, there are some historicalrelics of pre-JAXA times that persist in the organizational structure today. In the interestof eﬃciency, it will be good to try to eliminate duplication of eﬀort over time.
(b) ISAS is clearly making important contributions to JAXA. The relationship between ISAS
and JSPEC, which are both located on the Sagamihara campus, is particularly crucial.
In order to make the most eﬀective use of the limited ISAS/JSPEC workforce as projects
evolve through their life cycle, it is critically important that individuals be able to move
between ISAS and JSPEC as necessary.
(7)

23

2.7

Comments by URRY, Megan(1) (a) Rating: S
Impressive activities in X-ray astronomy (the ﬁeld I know best), where ISAS has becomea world leader, as well as in other focus areas.
(b) Rating: S
Publications are impressive, especially in astronomy and astrophysics. Although the presentation is modest, the citations are substantial.
(c) Rating: S
Development of key technologies.
(2) Rating: S
At a summer school in Kyoto in August 2012, where I taught on X-ray astronomy, I was highly
impressed by students from all the ISAS-aﬃliated institutions. The graduate students are very
smart and well trained.
(3) Rating: S(4) (a) Rating: S
ISAS has carried out a prudent program based on steadily increasing capabilities, now
reaching the world-leading level.
(b) Rating: S
Major ISAS projects have succeeded in having an impact.
(c) Rating: S
ISAS activities have extensive international collaborations, and in many case, projects are
led by Japanese scientists.
(d) Rating: S(5) (a) Tentative rating: S
Organizational structure looks eﬀective to an outsider but I look forward to learning more.
(b) Rating: S
This approach seems designed to produce the most capable missions with the strongest
scientiﬁc output.
(c) Rating: S
Students are impressive.
(d) Rating: S
Cooperative system seems to work very well for the missions I know best.
(6) (a) Rating: S
Very strong institution which brings recognition to JAXA.
(b) Rating: S
(7)

24

2.8

Comments by ZARKO, V. E.

Actually, the scientiﬁc and engineering achievements of ISAS are highly recognized in the world
scientiﬁc community. Probably, the most distinctive results were recently obtained after accomplishment of successful ﬂights of Hayabusa and Kaguya spacecrafts. The representatives of ISAS
permanently take part in organization of important conferences and symposia, delivering there
papers and submitting articles to international journals.
(1) (a) Rating: S
Total estimation of the ISAS activity is very high. However, it is diﬃcult to evaluate
independently the results of scientiﬁc and engineering activity. In some extent it
looks like diﬀerence between fundamental and applied sciences which could not
be found easily. At the same time when we talk about the results of engineering activityof ISAS I have to underline the scientiﬁc content of this work. Obviously, the progress indevelopment of propulsion issues is based on the achievements in the ﬁelds of chemistry
and physics (combustion of energetic materials, hydrodynamics, etc.). I believe that thehigh level of ISAS accomplishments in engineering activity is the result of proper planningof research, hard work and high professional level of the researchers.
(b) Rating: S(Comment is combined with c.)(c) Rating: S
In accordance with my background I can evaluate mostly the results in propulsion relatedﬁelds. The ISAS researchers took part in formulation of Roadmap of solid propulsion forspace applications working together with leading scientists of USA and Europe. They
really know the current trends in solid propulsion and make essential contribution to its
development. There can be underlined the results on computer simulated internal ballistics of solid rocket motors with use of 3D data of coarse AP particles orientation in thepropellant. The calculations give the values of local burning rates and the shape of burning
grain. Promising results are obtained on replacement of costly X-ray inspection methodby newly developed ultrasonic method and on replacement of HTPB binder with energetic
binder GAP (glycidyl azide polymer). In studying liquid rocket propulsion the candidate
for next generation of green propellants the HAN (hydroxyl ammonium nitrate) has beenused in combination with ammonium nitrate and methanol and ﬁrst promising results wereobtained. In hybrid rocket propulsion the highest in the world regression rates with new
multi-section-swirling method were achieved.
There exist impressive achievements in development and use of advanced electric propulsion
principles. The microwave discharge µ10 ion engines have provided the safe return of there-entry Hayabusa capsule to Earth over 40,000 hours in 7-year deep space ﬂight. There arealso plans to realize a spacecraft propulsion system utilizing the energy of the solar wind.
However, in addition to this work it would be necessary to continue research in developing
most eﬃcient hybrid rocket engines. Actually, this is a real world trend in contemporary
chemical propulsion engineering and ISAS activity in this direction has to be approved andincreased.
(2) Rating: S
Graduate education system of ISAS looks very eﬃcient. During period of more than 10 years
I was able to interact with graduate students of ISAS and edit their publications. The level ofstudent works and their interest to studying space engineering were permanently high. I believethat the direct contact with very qualiﬁed researchers in ISAS and participation in conducting advanced research projects provide strong basis for high education level. Similar systemeﬀectively works for years in Novosibirsk scientiﬁc center of Russian Academy of Sciences.

25

(3) Rating: S
General education and public outreach are organized and conducted by ISAS in excellent
and eﬃcient manner. After opening the exhibition hall the citizens of Sagamihara and other
cities got a great chance to obtain from the ﬁrst hands the information about Japan spaceachievements and children to become familiar with the history and current state of spaceresearch, with design of spacecrafts and satellites, etc. This work is under continuous progress
and I was personally pleased to visit in November of 2011 the exhibition hall in ISAS mainbuilding. At the same time I watched (on weekend) a sort of Open House in the neighborFuchinobe park with special attractions for children. Spreading information through the mass
media, public lectures and special exhibitions is also highly eﬀective. I can additionally mention
that ISAS presented a Pencil rocket and M-5 models to Novosibirsk space museum thus
informing Russian citizens about Japan space activity and history.
(4) (a) Rating: A
In the space engineering science the important role belongs to the search of non-toxic, nondebree and energetically powerful propellants. Part of this work is doing in ISAS, more orless eﬃciently. It seems that research in the ﬁeld of hybrid rocket engines may give somegain in the ﬁnal payload of rocket thus increasing the propulsion system eﬃciency.
(b) Rating: S
Space projects directed to the atmospheric and solar system sciences as well as astrophysics certainly generate important results in basic science. As for engineering science,the demands of developing most eﬃcient propulsion systems and eﬀorts in solving relevant problems generate the results which are very important for scientiﬁc background of
our knowledge (e.g., combustion theory, stability of combustion, etc.) and for practicalapplications.
(c) Rating: A
The ISAS international collaboration is mostly evident in basic space science projects. In
engineering science it often faces with certain security problems but the activity in thisdirection has to be strengthened.
(d) Rating: S
On my knowledge the number and quality of ISAS projects are very reasonable and highif one takes into account the scientiﬁc staﬀ size and funding volume.
(5) (a) Rating: S
The scheme and procedure of making decisions in Space Science Activities by ISAS, described in Section 1.6 of the ISAS report, looks attractive and reasonable. It provides
thorough discussions and evaluation of new projects, facilitates the natural collaboration
between diﬀerent research groups and individual researchers. The procedure of staged evaluation and performance of the projects gives good basis for current control of the project
development.
(b) Rating: A
The meaning and value of this system in project initiation is undoubtedly high. It reallyprovides the best opportunities for involving expertise and vast knowledge of various researchers in formulation of new approaches and projects. However, as it is shown in the
ISAS report this system looks as the only way to initiate new projects. Because ISAS as apart of JAXA is the major player in Japan space activity it is doubtful if only bottom-up
system may work as unique source for planning new missions.
(c) Rating: A
The graduate education in ISAS plays important role in training qualiﬁed researchers for
ISAS itself as well as for Japan educational institutes and industrial organizations. The
system of such education is well arranged and gives excellent results. Taking into accountlarge number of high level researchers I would suggest that ISAS increases the number of26

postdoctoral positions in order to attract more talented young researchers from Japan andalso from abroad.
(d) Rating: S
Inter-university research system is well constructed and works eﬃciently as it is seen fromthe results of planning the space activities of ISAS.
(6) (a) Rating: S(Comment is combined with b.)(b) Rating: S
It is diﬃcult to answer on this question without detailed information about structure of
JAXA, existing links and collaboration within total organization, etc. The merger of JAXA
made strong eﬀects on the scale of space projects and modiﬁed the role of ISAS in Japan
space activity. The participation in large-scale projects implies essential increase in the
portion of management and may decrease the portion of scientiﬁc research. The same canbe expected regarding the volume of educational and public outreach ISAS activity. At
present, ISAS serves as a center of space science and space engineering researches in Japanand this situation has to be preserved in the future because of great value of the teamof very qualiﬁed experts working and scientiﬁc approaches developed. The statement in
JAXA 2025 vision of necessity to contribute to advancing knowledge of the universe has
direct relation to ISAS activity and maintaining this activity should be important task for
JAXA.
(7) Small comments regarding aspects of chemical propulsion development, contacts with industry
and international activity.
(a) The concept of reusable sounding rocket system looks attractive and reasonable. However,stated in the report (p.451) reduction of the transport cost in more than 100 times is notjustiﬁed clearly and takes special substantiation.
(b) When planning development of solid propellants based on ammonium dinitramide (ADN,
p. 455), it can be useful to take into account statements made in 1990s in USA (L. Caveny,
AIAA conferences in 1994-95). It was formulated that the use of ADN is justiﬁed only
as an additive to propellant formulation, i.e. as a burn rate modiﬁer. It shows that theconcept of using ADN in solid propellant has to be carefully examined and discussed.
(c) Obviously, the close contact between ISAS and industry is the necessary condition forsuccess of space missions. At the same time there should exist the feedback from ISAS
space engineering activity to Japan industry. This is not clearly described in the report.
(d) The eﬀective tools for advertising the leading role of ISAS in space science are international
conferences in professional areas. The activity in this direction has to be supported andencouraged by the Institute (and JAXA) directorate.

27

2.9

Comments by HOTATE, Kazuo(1) (a) Rating: S
Many results of activities were published in English academic articles. Number of publications with referees is 1/8 of NASA’s ones. Considering budget condition of ISAS(1/100), it
should be evaluated well. Number of citation per publication is about 17(NASA is about25), this is also evaluated well. There are many co-author publications with foreign institutes such as NASA and Stanford University. This means ISAS is conducting many
international cooperation. In fact, several international space programs have been alreadydesigned and promoted, and also future projects are also planned.
(b) Rating: S
For example, 22 out of 27 highly-cited papers are in the ﬁeld of Astronomy & Astrophysics.
Comparing with NASA, overall ratio is 27:272, while the ratio of A&A is 22:124. This isconsidered to be remarkable.
(c) Rating: A
Number of English papers in space engineering, normalizing by international research papers of ﬁeld, is the largest one. This should be evaluated well. Considering HAYABUSA’s
sample return, ISAS has plenty of ability in space engineering ﬁeld.
(2) Rating: S
ISAS has graduate education scheme in 4 categories and produces 50-80 master degree holders
and 10-25 Ph. D holders every year. Regarding graduate education and research, science andengineering are practiced through practical research site, and ISAS educates students in thereal research site and students contribute to real research. It should receive high recognition.
(3) Rating: S
There are several schemes such as open house, free campus tour, and anniversary lecture. ISAS
actively conducts outreach activities which brought major results in promotion of space science.
Especially return of HAYABUSA added impetus to these activities.
(4) (a) Rating: S
In ISAS, by developing and utilizing satellites and spacecrafts, space science and engineeringcollaborate in coordination and implementation of space project in order to acquire theknowledge which cannot be obtained from observation and theory study on the Earth. In
addition to X-ray astronomy satellite, which produced many achievements in the past, ISAS
launched the ﬁrst infrared astronomy satellite ”AKARI”, and also obtained achievementsfrom ”KAGUYA”, and ”HAYABUSA”. I am conﬁdent that ISAS will further achieve with
important missions such as BepiColombo, SPICA and so on.
(b) Rating: S
As for HAYABUSA mission, sample return was achieved and scientiﬁc results were obtained. This is based on the result of engineering achievement. Challenge of Venus orbit
insertion of ”AKATSUKI” is also expected. It is expected that ISAS lead the world with
developing original technologies such as solar power sail technology and this promote accumulation of achievements.
(c) Rating: S
ISAS’s spacecrafts are launched in foreign countries, there are many co-author papers withforeign research institutes; therefore ISAS has made worldwide achievements. BepiColombo
is full scale Europe-Japan joint mission, SPICA is also JAXA-ESA joint program. ISAS
fully promote international cooperation and contribute to promote development of spacescience.
(d) Rating: S. With limited budget, ISAS performs distinctive missions which started from the establishment of ISAS. This realized unique results by original technology developments. In the28

future, challenging missions such as HAYABUSA2 and SELENE2 etc, which are expected
to promote space science and engineering, are planned(5) (a) Rating: S
Major role of ISAS is to promote ingenious space science. For this purpose, it’s importantthat researchers can propose research theme with freewheeling thinking. This is essential
part of ISAS’s origin which ingenious research is incubated in the universities. Researchers’autonomies in selection of research themes shall be sustained and strengthened.
(b) Rating: S
Bottom up selection of research theme should be a pair with keeping researchers’ autonomies in theme selection. This should be maintained in order to keep producing ingenious research results on a global basis.
(c) Rating: S
Graduate education is essential to cultivate human resources of next generation in theﬁeld of space science. ISAS’s graduate education provides real academe to students andit is valuable to develop outstanding human resources. The aspect of graduate education
organization of ISAS shall be maintained and promoted(d) Rating: S
Designing research theme with originality is a key to global contribution to space science
research. For this, wisdoms of researchers both from space science and engineering ﬁelds
shall be gathered together, and also cooperation by Co-operative Graduate School Systemshall be maintained and promoted.
(6) (a) Rating: S
In JAXA’s various missions, promoting ”space science” is ISAS’s mission. ISAS has madeachievements in development of science and cultivation of excellent human resources fornext generation in space science and engineering ﬁeld. Achievement in each space projects
and publication activities in ISAS are evidence for that.
(b) Rating: S
Results of space engineering and science by promoting space science are applied and contributing in utilization of space.
(7) Seeking truth in space and realization of useful advanced technology in space give us a dreamand bring major merit for daily life. Moreover, such knowledge and accumulation of technology could become a key factor to produce innovation to society. ISAS’s activities including
development of human resources in Science and Technology for next generation is expected to
be promoted from now on.

29

2.10

Comments by KAMAE, Tsuneyoshi(1) (a) Rating: A
In general, it’s excellent, but, linkage with researchers of universities in Japan or neighboring countries should be improved. Also, allocation of resources of personnel and budget is
not adequate for almost all missions to support the entire activities from the design stage
to publication of the scientiﬁc and engineering results.
(b) Rating: A
Due to the limitation in the number of staﬀs, ISAS members are forced to work on weekends
to which I pay great respects. As almost all projects grow bigger and more complicated,
ISAS has to add resources (personnel and budget). Otherwise the scientiﬁc results obtainedin the projects will not be exploited fully.
(c) Rating: A
This is outside of my expertise, so my comment may miss important points. I hope cooperative research with universities will expanded to universities other than university of Tokyo.
Under the current ﬂat-budget ﬂat-man-power climate, cooperation with other universities
is becoming ever more important.
(2) Rating: B
Compared to KEK and other accelerator laboratories, the facility to assist visitors is not adequate. ISAS should provide more research space and better accommodation for visitors. Also,budget to fund non-ISAS researchers in participating to ISAS projects (including data analyses)
should be increased(3) Rating: A
HAYABUSA has made a huge impact in this area. Educating teachers of elementary/junior/highschools and providing materials to them should be also promoted.
(4) (a) Rating: A
Although ISAS members are quite busy, members are conducting basic development andresearch. In my mind ISAS can invite more researchers from other universities and institutions or cooperate with them. This is related to (2), (3). I note that most ISAS researchers
are already used up all of their time in fulﬁlling ISAS duties.
(b) Rating: B
Within the current limitation in the number of researchers and engineers, ISAS should set
some limit to the number of projects. ISAS should reserve resources to carry through the
publication phase.
(c) Rating: S
Although ISAS is not large institute, ISAS hosts many international projects and take
important responsibilities of partners. This must be highly recognized. However, facilities
to support guests from abroad are not perfect.
(d) Rating: S
It is covered very broad areas of research. Considering the size, there is some limit in thenumber of projects. Hence projects must be carefully selected from the early development
phase. One of Japanese characteristics is not to criticize projects proposed from other ﬁeld.
Because of this trait, the screening process especially in the early phases of projects leaves
room for improvement.
(5) (a) Rating A
I do not think absolute ”autonomy of research” or academic freedom is not the bestpolicy. ISAS should maintain two things:
1. Nurture culture where the research theme is contemplated well so that it survives severe

30

criticism,
2. Nurture custom to monitor its progress carefully with critical eyes.
(b) Rating A
Bottom up method of mission selection is important, but in Japanese research institutes
or communities, eﬀorts of leaders to go back to their key objectives and think about ”whatis most important” are often inadequate.
(c) Rating: S
I see that many eﬀorts have been made by ISAS. However, right out of the box experiments for high-school teachers may be worthy to be tried. Eﬀorts made by ISAS until now
have started to bring impacts to many high-school students.
(d) Rating: A
Regarding inter-university research system, some smaller universities may not have professors involved in the ISAS projects. Many students in such universities are interested inspace science and professors need guidance from experts in the ﬁeld. Some mechanism tosupport such universities may be possible by mobilizing retired scientists.
(6) (a) Rating: S
ISAS has produced more than scientiﬁc enough results. ISAS overwhelmed other department of JAXA in international visibility, quality and number of cooperative researchersand so on.
(b) I do not have enough information to evaluate this point.
(7) It may be worthwhile to evaluate all completed projects of ISAS and list areas where
things could have been done better. The valuable experiences the ﬁrst generation scientists
and engineers had may be quickly lost otherwise. Also ISAS staﬀs (and university professors)need to play more active role beyond the bounds of organizations.

31

2.11

Comments by KAWAMURA, Hiroshi(1) (a) Rating: S
In terms of overall activities, ISAS has produced good results.
(b) Rating: S
ISAS has produced signiﬁcant achievements in space science ﬁeld.
(c) Rating: S
ISAS also has produced signiﬁcant achievements in space engineering ﬁeld. One of theachievements is that HAYABUSA overcame several diﬃculties and returned to the Earthwith the sample from Itokawa. It shall be recognized as one of the signiﬁcant results in thespace engineering ﬁeld. On the other hand, some major instruments of HAYABUSA losttheir functions in the course of the mission. In addition, there were several missions whichwere not able to achieve their targets. They shall be treated as engineering issues to be
veriﬁed and their results to be reﬂected to future missions.
(2) Rating: A
Graduate education is eﬀective system not only for the students but also to ISAS. Graduate
students can participate in the ﬁrst-line research of space, and ISAS can receive revitalizing
eﬀects from less experienced but young students to mission teams. However, from the report,
numbers of graduate students and awarded degrees were described but it was not mentioned nor
clariﬁed in the review meeting if this system was functioned well; i.e. whether students grewup through receiving eﬃcient education or not, whether participation of students contributed
to ISAS’s researches or projects well. Thus, A is rated to this item.
(3) Rating: S
Recently, ISAS promoted PR activities such as opening the HAYABUSA’s capsule to the
public, performing open lectures or appearance of ISAS members. These activities contributed
signiﬁcantly to increase public interests to space science and space development, to give dream
to public and to rebuild Japanese peoples’ conﬁdent on future of Japan. Additionally, ISAS
is promoting to send lecturers to ”Space School” in many towns, which contributes to spaceeducation and general science in young generation.
(4) (a) Rating :A
Basic researches conducted in ISAS are aiming at future important space science/engineering
missions, and they have made major contributions to past missions. There are, however,some basic researches whose intensions are not clearly related to the future missions. On
the other hand, in general, the basic research does not always have to lead directly to themissions.
(b) Rating: n/a
It is favorable if basic research is inspired by the results of projects. I think this is notalways necessary matter.
(c) Rating: S
Regarding this point, there are always competitive and cooperative aspects. In general,
ISAS has been leading the world with its projects and also participating intensively ininternational cooperations.
(d) Rating: N/A
ISAS’s projects cover space science and space engineering ﬁelds; however, it is not appropriate to evaluate whether current situation is the best or not.
(5) (a) Autonomy of researchers in theme selection is important for conducting original and advancing researches, and it should be sustained. On the other hand, because ISAS is not
general research institute but the institute with the deﬁned missions, research themes,
which are autonomously proposed by each researcher, shall be fully considered and strictly32selected from the views of academic, pioneer technological as well as the resource aspects.
Role of the responsible committees or councils to make linkage between proposed themes
and existing or future projects are very important and requires a broad vision and highprofessional aspects.
(b) Bottom up selection of mission has worked eﬀectively in order to promote ingenious andleading-edge missions. It should be emphasized that the structure and budget to promote
the bottom up system is important. If these are not well prepared, researchers outside aredisposed to leave from the space researches because tends to require long term. On theother hand, as the singular organization which covers both space science and engineering inJapan, bottom up selection system should not be the unique selection system but anotherroute be also provided in parallel.
(c) Field education (graduate education) is eﬀective system not only for the students but also
to ISAS. Graduate students can participate in the ﬁrst-line research of space, and ISAS
can receive revitalizing eﬀects from less experienced but young students to mission teams.
Therefore this should be maintained and expected to be broadened to not only in ISAS
but also in JAXA.
(d) Inter-university research system brings power of outside to ISAS and can provide potential of ISAS to outside. This is recognized as important role and should be maintained.
Although, in the personal level of the scientists, the outcomes by inter-university researchsystem belong also to the outside researchers, in the institutional level, the outcomes should
belong not only to ISAS but also to the outside institutions depending on their contributions.
(6) (a) As one of institute of JAXA, which is the singular aerospace agency in Japan, ISAS has
been producing enough results so far.
(b) One of ISAS’s major contributions to JAXA is outreach activities that were mentioned
in the previous question. Results of ”HAYABUSA” and JAXA’s manned space activities
are working together to heighten public attention in space science and space development.
Moreover they reﬂected credit on overall JAXA including ISAS.
On the other hand, about linkage between ISAS and JAXA, as certain amount of time has
passed since the merger, there must be areas where ISAS can provide cooperative activities
to support other departments of JAXA. For example, ”science research in microgravity
environment by using satellites (incl. ISS)” is deﬁned as the space science now, so ISAS,
as JAXA’s institute with the responsibility of the space science, should actively participate in structure, budget, personnel positioning and personnel treatment with the related
departments.
(7) ISAS successfully possesses the inter-university research and relating professorship systems,
which are very eﬀective to promote research works. ISAS should help to diversify these systems
to other parts in JAXA, in which there exist not a few parts quite suitable to those systems. It
would be a great contribution of ISAS to the promotion of research works in the whole JAXA.

33

2.12

Comments by KOBATAKE, Hidefumi(1) (a) Rating: S
The productivity of excellent paper (highly cited paper and hot paper), in normalizing by
the number of researchers, is fewer than that of NASA, but it still can be judged that ISAS
is keeping the highest standard in the world. Also, comparing the number of hot papers
per 1000 researchers between ISAS and top Japanese universities, ISAS is always keeping
the highest productivity, and normalized citation impact of ISAS is 60(b) Rating: S
I am not eligible to make judgment about scientiﬁc research as I have no back ground in
this ﬁeld; however, I would like to mark an S as the science ﬁeld accounts for at least halfof the above rating.
(c) Rating: S-As shown in ISAS report, ISAS carries out strong basic research in extremely broad areas.
It is determined that these research achievements are incorporated into the actual program
such as Hayabusa and have made great contributions to complete mission and obtain
excellent results. Space project, in general, possesses an element of danger where single
vulnerability can bury the whole project; therefore, I have concluded that ISAS is producing
an excellent research achievement when considered in the aggregate. Moreover, despite theconstraints of limited human and ﬁnancial resources, ISAS, by setting and implementing
high quality research project, manages to deliver impressive result that is highly-regarded
worldwide.
-Each aerospace program can be referred as integrated science and integrated engineering.
Given that each single advanced ﬁeld has made steady progress, I have become conﬁdent
that Japanese Space Science and Space Engineering have made consistent progress.
(2) Rating: A-It is determined that there is a profound eﬀect on education because ISAS is achieving excellent results on high quality missions with involvement of graduate students. This cultivates
human resource who play a major role in researching Space Science and Engineering ﬁelds,
and the graduate students, as researchers and engineers that assume a large role in generalindustry, have potential of making a great contribution to the society. It can be stated thatthe graduate students are great assets in research promotion at ISAS.
-Comparing the number of faculties (professors/associate professors) and the number of graduate students, the number of students is approximately twice as many of the faculties. Also, it
looks like one third of master s degree holders go on to doctorate. Graduate school educationis crucially important to develop and maintain researchers in next generation and engineers inspace industry, and ISAS serves an important function in this extent. ISAS s environment isrelatively favorable for the students; therefore, I expect more graduate students, especially thedoctorate students, will conduct research at ISAS.
(3) Rating: S
In the light of eﬀort to fulﬁll programs such as Open House and Guided and Free Campus
tours, it can be said that the public outreach activities are at suﬃcient level. While there
is a trend where more young Japanese are moving away from the science, the activities togenerate interest in science and technology to the next generation would stop this trend, andfurthermore, it will lead to promote space science and space engineering. It is expected thatthese activities will be promoted and continued proactively.
-As human and ﬁnancial resource are limited, I hope these activities will not interfere with thestakeholder s ﬁrst duties.
(4) (a) Rating: A-It is determined that space project is functioning eﬀectively. There is a system where34various committees in ISAS, in association with speciﬁcally categorized working groups, todeﬁne the mission of ISAS and to examine the outcome.
-It is determined that space project is planned and implemented by keeping overall balancein space science ﬁeld. Moreover, compared with overseas, there is a Japanese originality
and uniqueness. Research outcome is remarkable considering citation impact per numberof researchers.
-Based on above points, basic research at ISAS is implemented accurately and adequatelyfrom a long-term standpoint(b) Rating: S-In space science, it can be inevitable at certain extent of probability to incomplete the mission by launch failure or malfunction of equipments. Considering the circumstance, ISAS
has completed many of its space project missions, and meaningful science and engineeringachievements have been produced. I am not eligible to make a comment in the area outside
my realm of expertise, but it can be determined from published data of citation impact
and number of hot papers.
-Successful achievement of Hayabusa and Kaguya moved and excited many Japanesecitizens. It can be assumed that engineering and scientiﬁc result is remarkable as accomplishing such challenging mission. This is the reason why I marked an S .
-As for countless glitches Hayabusa encountered, the actions taken by the Japanese scientists to overcome the problem are admirable. The system is elegantly designed withredundancy to overcome the crisis, and the process to bring a successful conclusion is truly
impressive; however, this type of impressiveness is not meant for. I urge ISAS to learn
lessons from this trouble and consider it as a benchmark for pursuit of more reliable andhigh level space technologies.
(c) Rating: S
Japanese space science has a great presence in the world, and it can be stated as advanced
country in space science. In the lean budget, there are remarkable and unique projects.
Space projects are conducted with suﬃcient international collaborations by sharing observation equipment and sharing observational data. ISAS is taking signiﬁcant roles in theinternational space science progress.
(d) Rating: A-ISAS as an institute that holds researchers from various ﬁelds, there are programs which
researchers can plan and implement on their specialty. Consistency and development is fully
considered in the future planning project. -In above program, despite the constraints oflimited human and ﬁnancial resources, optimized project planning is implemented. -Thereseems to be nothing that is missing or insuﬃcient.
(5) (a) -ISAS should take operation that regards highly the autonomy of researchers. In general,
for the researcher that produces excellent research outcome, it is expected to guarantee
the environment to exploit abilities to the full extent under curiosity-drive research. Suchenvironment considered to bring about excellent research out come.
-At the same time there is a mission as JAXA, and it is inevitable that ISAS take a
responsibility in this mission. Denying this means ISAS loses its position as research
institute in JAXA.
-Autonomy of researchers should not contradict with JAXA s mission.
It is expected to have the attitude to realize and respect both points. It is necessary tosustain and strengthen 1) the system that above mentioned points are incorporated into
mission selection process, and 2) scheme which members of mission selection committee areappointed in balance. I am expecting that the current situation is somewhat acceptable.
(b) -Bottom-up system for the mission selection is appropriate because the real excellent projectis produced from freewheeling thinking of excellent researcher.
35

-It is also important and appropriate that both external and internal ISAS members areequally dealing with the selection committee or review committee.
(c) ISAS is taking a signiﬁcant role in developing human resources to lead space science andspace engineering by educating graduate students through practical R&D ﬁeld. Especiallyreal experience is very important as it brings educational eﬀect that classroom lecture
cannot realize.
-Not only for the educational eﬀect, it is great empowerment for research promotion in
ISAS.
-As mentioned in (2) the number of graduate students should be increased.
(d) Cooperation with universities through Inter-University Research system resulted in having
researchers from wide range of researching ﬁelds, also the collaboration of researchers had agreat eﬀect in promoting researchers. It results in contribution to the progress of Japanesespace science and space engineering.
(6) (a) Current space program is becoming enormous and complex, and it requires the support
from basic research in broad ﬁelds. Therefore JAXA without ISAS is unable to complete
suﬃcient mission. JAXA s mission can be accomplished through ISAS, as a research
institute, deeply engaging with JAXA s mission.
(b) I am not eligible to make a comment on this statement as I do not have substantial information regarding the relationship between internal organizations in huge agency such as
JAXA.
(7)

36

2.13

Comments by MUROYAMA, Tetsuya(1) (a) Rating: A
ISAS deserves acclaim for its enormous eﬀort, but there are some issues such as the autonomy of Space Science versus the national space policy (e.g. merger of JAXA). It isconsidered that further discussion for autonomy of research is necessary.
(b) Rating: S
Scientiﬁc activities are highly appreciated for its internationally high level research.
(c) Rating: S
As it can be seen from example of Hayabusa, engineering activities are sustaining highstandard internationally. A revival Akatsuki is expected as it is overcoming many challenges.
(2) Rating: S
ISAS endeavors to facilitate close cooperation with universities, and the quality and eﬃciencyof published papers are high; however, unfortunately, the system to foster young scientists is
not well organized in Japan. It is necessary to develop strategy to counter such defect.
(3) Rating: S
The remarkable performance by Hayabusa has resulted in 3 movie titles and massive media
coverage. The public attention to the space science has increased. By attractive characteristicsof the professors who present various information, it is considered that ISAS is uncommonly
doing well for the Japanese science organization. Space Education Center has a large presence.
In the future, my expectation for ISAS is to have inﬂuence on universal theme such as What
is Man? and What is Life? through space and universe .
(4) (a) Rating: S
Many of the concepts of basic research are unique and appreciated; however, formulation of
the sustainable system to maintain post merger quality of missions and to execute them in
to eﬀect is anticipated. As can be seen in Hayabusa II project, decision making procedure(top down versus bottom up) needs to be improved.
(b) Rating: S”Failure is just a stepping stone to success.” Failure teaches us what actions we shouldchange in order to achieve success. The quality of research papers is very high, and theresearch outcome seems to be signiﬁcant as for now.
(c) Rating: S
ISAS is one of the best scientiﬁc research organizations in Japan.
(d) Rating: A
There is an impression that the science / engineering areas covered by ISAS projects aremostly appropriate.
(5) (a) Rating: A
The autonomy of research seems to be mostly realized; however, conﬁdence in researchersand speciﬁcity in outcome are essential in sustaining autonomous research. Pubic andpolitical outreach is important, but unfortunately, there is an impression that it is notenough. (Enthusiasm for Hayabusa by public was merely generated by its cinematic anddramatic process rather than importance of scientiﬁc research by Itokawa.)(b) Rating: A
Autonomy of researchers are origin of all the missions, it has to be valued highly. At thesame time there is a public (political) comment such as some of scientists are conducting
self-indulgent research regardless of social situation. It is urged to sustain bottom-up
system by enhancing external accountability.

37

(c) Rating: A
There is an impression that it is going well though I am not quite familiar with the on-site
education in space-science program.
(d) Rating: A
There is an impression that it is going well though I am not quite familiar with the collaboration with universities - inter-university research system.
(6) (a) Rating: A
It is considered that ISAS is conducting autonomous and high level scientiﬁc research;however, there is an impression that ISAS has issues to resolve in the context of the merger
with JAXA. Organizational measures are needed for issue resolution. (e.g. aiming at a role
like JPL in NASA)(b) Rating: B
ISAS has tendency to pursue autonomy in the organization, and there is a fact that ISAS
holds dual structure as seen in Japanese Experiment Module Kibo Project. ISAS needs
JAXA s organizational measures for issue resolution.
(7) Eﬀort to evangelize the importance of basic science in society to public and politicians is notenough. Complaining without action will not solve anything. Proactive action is needed. The
discussion in evaluation committee tends to be indulgent on fellow insiders. By taking external
critics and pressure, sustaining report should be compiled.

38

2.14

Comments by OKANO, Shoichi(1) (a) Rating: S
Considering the number of researchers, engineers, and administration staﬀs, and scale ofits budget, ISAS is performing quite well in its activity, when compared with NASA, ESA,or IKI.
(b) Rating: S
In the ﬁeld of solar physics and astronomy, activity of ISAS is recognized to be leading theworld. Further growth is expected also in the ﬁeld of planetary science.
(c) Rating: A
Japanese own engineering researches are being performed well with limited budget. But it
may be uncertain if technologies accumulated so far will be maintained in the future due
to decrease of number of ﬁeld engineers.
(2) Rating: A
Graduate education at a site where space science is actually going on should be highly evaluatedas it can produce competent scientists and engineers. But when considering the position of
ISAS, it is recommended to have more students from abroad.
(3) Rating: S
This is a ﬁeld in which quantitative evaluation of the outcome against activity is diﬃcult. Still,they are doing quite well when the number of full-time staﬀs is considered.
(4) (a) Rating: A
Basic research at ISAS should be highly valued in both science and engineering as they
have been doing these activities with looking the future. The current of the times is goingtoward exoplanets, and a little concern remains if they do follow up with this trend.
(b) Rating: S
Mission projects have been producing suﬃcient outcome with stimulating ISAS in bothscience and engineering. They have been functioning also to foster young researchers.
(c) Rating: A
In the ﬁeld of solar physics, astronomy, and space plasma, suﬃcient international collaborations have been made and ISAS played a signiﬁcant role. Also in solar system science,
BepiColombo is now going on in collaboration with ESA and its outcome should be expected. Further collaborations are desired for other solar system bodies and even for
exoplanets. Activity of ISAS on JUICE project and next Mars mission should also behighly expected.
(d) Rating: A
We should expect further growth in the future, but more human and budgetary resources
are desired to be put in the ﬁeld of planetary and exoplanetary science.
(5) (a) Rating: S
The basis of the process starting from discussion in the working group, project evaluation
at the committee, to execution of the project is autonomy of researchers at ISAS, including
collaboration with external researchers. Such autonomy of researchers should be highly
valued and maintained.
(b) Rating: A
Bottom-up system for the mission selection is important and, formally, it looks such system
is functioning. But it looks not completely certain that there is a rule or standard to judge
if the decision of the committee is really reasonable or not.
39

(c) Rating: A
Graduate education at ISAS on the site of space development should absolutely be maintained for the future. Further internationalization of students and postdocs will contributefor promoting the position of ISAS.
(d) Rating: A
When a system that guarantees research activity by external researchers staying at ISAS
for short or medium term is established, collaboration will be further augmented.
(6) (a) Rating: S
It is not too much to say that the activity of ISAS does support JAXA. ISAS should be
proud of its important role within JAXA.
(b) Rating: S
As collaboration with the Lunar and Planetary Exploration Group demonstrates, ISAS is
activating JAXA. Japan has been making space development without military aspects sofar. This situation may change in the future. Still, ISAS is desired to represent JAXA,
and we hope it is recognized as a strong point of Japan and ISAS becomes worthy of worldrespect.
(7) It is desired that international reputation of ISAS will be more augmented by maintaining goodtradition from the time of Tokyo University s ISAS, and it seems possible to accomplish this.

40

2.15

Comments by SOMA, Yoshie(1) (a) Rating: S
Not only miraculous HAYABUSA’s return, but also 7 scientiﬁc satellites are under operation. This means ISAS has produced suﬃcient results.
(b) Rating: S
The scientiﬁc activities must be excellent, as the number of papers has grown steadily
during the past years.
(c) Rating: S
It is a great achievement that HAYABUSA was operated with ion engines for 7 years,
touched down on Itokawa, and returned with its sample.
(2) Rating: A
Many student have opportunities to study space and astronautical science, as ISAS has 4
systems for graduate education. Many students obtained Master and Doctor degree.
(3) Rating: S
People who are interested in space science are signiﬁcantly increasing.
(4) (a) Rating: S
Result of Ikaros mission is expected.
(b) Rating: S
Success of HAYABUSA was splendid.
(c) Rating: S
HAYABUSA project demonstrated that it was feasible to bring back a sample to the earth
from an asteroid, operated with ion engines for 7 years.
(d) Rating: A
I guess that ISAS is doing their best to cover scientiﬁc and engineering ﬁelds.
(5) (a) Rating: S
Although all scientiﬁc activities begin with the interests of individual researchers, researchers with similar interests collaborate each other.
(b) Rating: A
A bottom-up system from advanced study A phase, working group to project team is wellorganized.
(c) Rating: A
It is wonderful that many students have an opportunity to undertake laboratory research
at ISAS through 4 systems.
(d) Rating: A
Many projects are carried out by inter-university research system.
(6) (a) Rating: S
ISAS has produced great results such as HAYBUSA, IKAROS, and so on.
(b) Rating: A‘ ISAS cooperates to JAXA through cooperative research.
(7) I have a concern that JAXA allocated enough resources (personnel and budget) to ISAS.

41

2.16

Comments by YASAKA, Tetsuo(1) (a) Rating: S
ISAS is conducting proactive research and development, and it is achieving satisfactory
outcomes.
(b) Rating: S
ISAS is showing top-level performance. The plans are made in long term point of view,and the resource is devoted to the area of strength. The collaboration with the domestic
universities is successful, and the plan is practiced by taking advantage of international
collaboration.
(c) Rating: A
ISAS is conducting research and development in the area of strength, and the research
infrastructure to respond to demand from the mission. Each area has proactive goals, andresearch is engaged toward this goal; however, it was not on clear on this report whether
there is a long-term goal in engineering ﬁeld as a whole. It is important to extend andpromote inter university collaboration as well as international collaboration.
(2) Rating: A
The graduate education is unique and highly regarded for its interconnection with the projects.
ISAS accepts the graduate students regardless of faculties’ aﬃliation, and it brings full educational eﬀects.
(3) Rating: A
Outreach activities toward general public are highly active and admirable. In order to expand
research arena, it is suggested that ISAS to promote publicity to obtain public support regarding
the choice of speciﬁc project and the constraints namely budget.
(4) (a) Rating: A
That is how I understand it.
(b) Rating: A
Space projects and basic research are in harmony. Especially in scientiﬁc research, theresults of projects provide the means to strongly generate and back up and generate thebasic theory. In engineering research, projects contribute in backing up the basic engineering technologies. Meanwhile, the question is what should be done to nurture the basic
research that is yet to be developed to the projects.
(c) Rating: A
International collaboration is engaged suﬃciently. If I am allowed to ask for more, I would
like to see a project led by Japanese to be set out, especially in the ﬁeld of engineering andplanetary probe.
(d) Rating: B
Scientiﬁc research as represented by Astronomy and Solar System is conducted systematically. Space Flight mission and satellite mission are considered to take an important rolein the project.
(5) (a) Rating: S
Researchers themselves bring up the goal of research and project, and they study and work
hard together to select more eﬀective research topics; therefore, autonomy of researchers
in selection of research topics is solidly sustained.
(b) Rating: A
Research topics are selected eﬀectively by utilizing the function of Inter-University Research
institute. At the same time, it make sense that the number of selected topics is subject tothe restriction of budget; however, the situation, where budget has not been expanded for42

past several years, cannot be overlooked. Because the system is bottom-up, the researchers
are encouraged to make a move toward expanding their own budget.
(c) Rating: A
It is worth noting that many inter-partnership universities and special research students,
in addition to University of Tokyo and The Graduate University for Advanced Studies,
are involved in research. Practical education based on actual project makes the student torecognize the value of research and to increase the motivation for research.
(d) Rating: S
Having inter-university research system built into the space development leads not only
to facilitate the progress of science, but also to have space science to take root in generalpublic. I hope this eﬀort will be sustained and enhanced.
(6) (a) Rating: S
Recent achievements by JAXA are mainly brought by ISAS s achievements; therefore,
ISAS as JAXA s organization deserves higher evaluation. On the other hand, it is naturalfor ISAS to request more resource for such great achievements and potential to bring more
substantial results.
(b) Rating: A
In the ﬁeld of space transportation system and solar system exploration, integration with
JAXA is promoted. This is a great model case of JAXA activities being driven by collective
expertise of ISAS. On the other hand, it can be seen that ISAS is losing its working ﬁeld
and identity. JAXA expects ISAS to take a risk and sustain strong aspiration of pioneering
new ﬁelds. An important premise to meet this expectation is to request and execute outof-the-box resource allocation.
(7)43

Appendix
A

Activities of the External Evaluation Committee

August, 2012
The External Evaluation Materials are sent to the committee members.

September, 2012
Initial comments are submitted from the committee members.

External Evaluation Committee MeetingDay - 1: Wednesday, October 24, 2012
09:30-09:40
09:40-10:00

Welcome Address and Remarks
Introduction of Members
Appoint of Chairperson and Vice Chairperson
Discussion on process of the committee
Overview of ISAS (130 min)
10:00-11:00 General Introduction of ISAS
Overview of Research Activities
11:00-11:50 Space Science Programs
11:50-12:10 ISAS’s Responses to Comments of the Previous
External Evaluation in 2007
12:10-13:00 Luncheon
Introduction of Research Depts. (300 min)
13:00-13:30 Dept. of Space Astronomy and Astrophysics
13:30-14:00 Dept. of Solar System Sciences
14:00-14:30 Dept. of Flight Systems
14:30-14:45 Break
14:45-15:15 Dept. of Spacecraft Engineering
15:15-15:45 Dept. of Interdisciplinary Space Science
15:45-15:55 ISAS’s Activities Analyzed from Statistics
16:00-18:00 Poster Sessions on ISAS activities
18:00
Adjourn

Junjiro Onoda
Kozo Fujii

Junjiro Onoda
Masato Nakamura
Yoshifumi Inatani

Kazuhisa Mitsuda
Masaki Fujimoto
Yasuhiro Morita
Tatsuaki Hashimoto
Tetsuya Yoshida
Toru Shimada

Day - 2: Thursday, October 25, 2012
09:30-12:00
12:00-13:00
13:00-14:30
14:30-16:00
16:00-16:10
16:10-16:20
16:20-16:25
16:25-16:30
16:30

Free Discussion
Luncheon
Sagamihara Campus Tour
Drafting the Summary Report (Closed)
External Evaluation Comments
External Evaluation Comments
Submission of Draft Evaluation Report
Closing Remarks
Adjourn

44

Committee / ISAS Members
Escorted by Seiichi Sakamoto
Committee Members Only
Chairperson
Vice Chairperson
Chairperson

December, 2012
Submission of the ﬁnal comment from the committee members.

January, 2013
Compilation of the External Evaluation Committee Report.

March, 2013
The oﬃcial publication of the External Evaluation Committee Report.

45

B

List of Materials to the External Evaluation Committee
1. Report of ISAS/JAXA Activities 2012
2. Initial Comments from the Committee Members
3. Slide Decks of the Committee Meeting
4. Handouts for the Poster Session

46