Request for Information̶Currently Accepting
A Request for Information (RFI) is a request for relevant technical information from a wide range of industries made todetermine topics of future research. On the basis of technical information received through the RFI, Space Exploration
Innovation Hub Center will narrow down the list of topics and issue Requests for Proposals (RFPs) to those who wish
to join Space Exploration Innovation Hub Center.

Open Innovation Hub Projects
Studies of proposals selected from RFPs being conducted.
Purposes and descriptions of three research types
・Solution-creating Research:
Projects with a clear technological target, aiming for commercialization within 3 years of the research being
completed
Research period: up to 3 years
Total research budget: up to 300 million yen
・Idea-incubating Research:
Projects implemented to discover new technologies and ideas
Research period: up to 1 year
Total research budget: up to 5 million yen
・Challenging Research:(special entries within idea-incubating research)
Projects implemented to discover groundbreaking ideas through free thinking
Research period: up to 1 year
Total research budget: up to 3 million yen
Intellectual property management system
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) believes that it is important to build an open research system that invites
talent and knowledge from various ﬁelds and has made necessary system improvements. Policy for handling intellectual
property is an important factor determining the success and failure of promoting the participation of talented
researchers and diverse businesses. Thus, unlike the traditional system adopted at JAXA, by providing JAXA portion ofmaintenance costs, such as application fees, the cost of implementation can be made exempt for intellectual property.
The management of intellectual property is being promoted.
Cross-appointment system
The cross-appointment system promotes the appointment of domestic and international researchers. The system istherefore designed to allow researchers to work without constraints relating to their aﬃliations. Researchers are
employed by businesses, universities, and research institutions (i.e., their aﬃliations) and JAXA (i.e., their dispatchedworkplace) and work in research and development, taking on their roles at each institution. To that end, an employment
system of cross-appointment was developed at JAXA in March 2015. Staﬀ are already being hired using this system atSpace Exploration Innovation Hub Center.
The opportunity to participate is open to researchers from Japan-based companies, universities, and researchinstitutions.
All application documents must be submitted in Japanese.

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency

Space Exploration Innovation Hub Center
The“Space Exploration Field”－ JAXA’s R&D Facility for Open Innovation and Space Exploration Projects －The Space Exploration Field, which began operations in May 2017, has been the site of many research activities of theHub's collaborative research and JAXA projects and has produced valuable research results and contributed to therealization of JAXA projects.
The ﬁeld is a 400-square-meter area covered with 425 tons of silica sandfeatures. It is one of the world's largest indoor facilities of its type.
This simulated lunar terrain is used for running and landing tests of exploration
robots and spacecraft and can also be used to simulate the lighting
environment provided by the moon through the shining of artiﬁcial sunlight.
We will continue to provide research and development facilities for companies,
universities, and research institutes, aiming to be a central facility for space
exploration research and development in Japan.
Tours are available.
We provide many visitors with the opportunity to tour the space exploration
facility.
Space Exploration Innovation Hub Center was supported by Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) from June 1, 2015 to March 31, 2020 as “Open
Innovation Hub for Expanding Humanosphere and the Domain of Human Activity through Solar System Frontier Development (Open Innovation Hub)”Space Exploration Innovation Hub Center (TansaX), Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
3-1-1 Yoshinodai, Chuo-ku, Sagamihara-shi, Kanagawa 252-5210
https://www.ihub-tansa.jaxa.jp/english/index e-mail: SE-forum@jaxa.jp@JAXA_TansaX
Recycling Suitability
JTX1712E3This printed material is recycable
into printing papers.

innovationCreation ofinnovation

Space exploration technology
Moon landing exploration
Mars exploration
Solar system exploration
Lunar baseechnology
rial ttser
terofntiobuExpansion of spacedevelopment
and utilization

Companies, universities,
and research institutions

Terrestrial technology

Resource utilization
Fuel cells
Bionics
Energy renewal
Micromachine sensors
Cutting-edge robotics
Actuators
Self-driving
Unmanned construction

Space Exploration
Innovation Hub Center

Director of Space Exploration Innovation Hub Center

Funaki Ikkoh

TansaX : TansaX is a nickname of Space Exploration Innovation Hub Center. TansaX includes ameaning of the creation of “X,” i.e., “unexpected things,” through our research and development forTansa*. TansaX is also the acronym for “Technology Advancing Node for SpAce eXploration.”* “Tansa” means “exploration” in Japanese.

Ac

TansaX Logo : The logo symbolizes our aim to expand the humanosphere and the domain of humanactivities within the Solar System. “X” symbolizes a rocket engine nozzle and projects the image ofﬂying freely and vigorously from the Earth (blue) to the Moon (yellow), the asteroids (gray), and Mars(red) in the Solar System.

ti v elu s e o f te rr e s tri atechl
noogyIn-situ resource utilization (ISRU) technology

With traditional large spacecraft, space exploration takes a lot of time and cost. Since opportunities forexploration are limited, the locations for exploration also become limited. Therefore, by switching froma strategy of focusing all eﬀorts in one area to one of distributed and cooperative works in wide areas,and by distributing functions through multiple small spacecrafts (exploration robots), wide-ranging yet
in-depth exploration of unexplored areas can be actualized, leading to an innovation in exploration
methods. For example, we aim to develop an innovative technology, in which multiple small robots arelaunched in one rocket, and are placed in craters, vertical caves, etc. on the Moon or Martian surface
to explore the areas all at once. Distributed robots can cooperate with each other, and engage inhigh-level observation, cooperative work, location identiﬁcation, and with a reliability that cannot beachieved with one robot. We can create our own unique exploration program through fusion of robots
technologies, which are the pride of our nation, and achieve a global leadership role in space
exploration. Applications to the building of a new observation system for natural phenomena, such as
volcanoes, typhoons, disasters, etc., measurement and examination of large structures and plants infactories, and a wide-range of automatic observations on Earth are expected to ﬂow from this program.

We aim to acquire the construction technology required for a manned base to be constructed on theMoon and Mars, and the infrastructure technology to support activities in the future. Since a large
number of people cannot be sent to the Moon and Mars, construction of the bases will be done largely
on an unmanned basis. The challenge is to step away from the total-command system from Earth,gather and acknowledge information of the self-position and the surroundings on site, and to acquire
the skills to operate eﬃciently. Various technologies such as ICT technology and environment
recognition technology are necessary to achieve this, and application of terrestrial technology that has
been proven on Earth is expected. From these developed technologies, humans and machines are
eﬃciently integrated, and new developments, such as remote operations on Earth, can be considered.

Construction
materials

Technology toeﬀectively use
low quality resources.
Technology for eﬃcientmining andtransportation of resources.
Reuse and recycle
technologies, etc.

▼

Automatic and autonomous exploration technology

Space farming(conceptual drawing)

Image of ultra-long-range
remote-controlled construction

Moon’s surface soil, regolith(the photograph shows
simulated lunar soil)

Satellite

Common Technology
Autonomous aerial robotsWheeled robots

InternetLegged robots

Image of observation and monitoringof volcanic areas

Image of unmanned construction of a manned baseon the Moon.

WirelessMetal▼Exploration technology in a wide range of unexplored areas

The transportation costs to the Moon and Mars are about 10 times higher than those to low Earth orbit.
Therefore, for sustainable activities on the Moon and Mars, a paradigm-shift to “procuring necessities
on site” becomes necessary.
The goal is to acquire a system that can eﬃciently produce essential goods and food using local
resources, energy and materials that are no longer needed.
Even on Earth, these technologies will be applied toward eﬀective use of untapped low-quality
resources, production of goods with low environmental impact, local production of resources on islands
and in remote areas, and eﬃcient food production.

▼Four areas of research

Cooperative exploration with biomimetic robotics(conceptual drawing)

Creation ofindustrial promotion
and new industry bycommercialization

Di
stri

As Japan and other countries around the world are rapidly expanding their lunar and planetary
exploration, what is the ultimate goal of space exploration? I participated in the formulation of“Space Vision 2050” announced by The Japan Society for Aeronautical and Space Sciences lastyear. I predicted that 30 years from now, in the future, space near the Earth will be a part ofglobal society as a place of human activity, and human beings will regularly stay on the Moon andMars, and people will routinely travel to space as tourists. Such an aﬄuent world does not appear
suddenly, but is supported by gradual development in various ﬁelds.
While space exploration today is supported by many research activities and government support,
the role of industry will become very important in the future. If companies are not able to get into
space activities and start new businesses, there will be no hope of a sustainable space program.
However, it's also true that the bar to entry into space is high for the average company. Therefore,
JAXA Space Exploration Innovation Hub Center (hereinafter “Exploration Hub”)'s policy is “DualUtilization,” which focuses on the feasibility of commercialization/innovation on the ground, withthe aim of applying it to future space exploration, and we believe that this approach will beextremely eﬀective in bringing sustainable growth to space development as industry sequentiallyexpands its role.
With this excellent approach, over the past ﬁve years we have achieved a wide range of researchand development results in the areas of Exploration technology in a wide range of unexplored
areas, Automatic and autonomous exploration technology, In-situ resource utilization (ISRU)
technology, and Common technology, from the challenge of embryonic new technologies to therealization of technology demonstrations in space, and we are gradually realizing our target ofopen innovation. On the other hand, the attempts so far have not yet been on a large enoughscale, and there will be a need to regularize the activity of pursuing innovation and ensure that it
is applied to the expansion and exploration of the business by companies. We would like to see
the activities to bring together a diverse range of human resources and research and development
themes in the hub promoted as Phase 2 activities of Exploration Hub. We look forward to theparticipation and cooperation of a wide range of people from industry, government, and academia.

Water, Hydrogen, Oxygen

Fuel

We challenge the acquisition of elemental technologies commonly required for “Exploration technology
in a wide range of unexplored areas”, “Automatic and autonomous exploration technology”, and “In-situ
resource utilization(ISRU) technology”, such as energy technologies (e.g. heat and power), technologies
to measure the surrounding area essential for automatic driving, etc., and information andcommunication technologies such as IoT.
Examples include high-performance, secure all-solid-state lithium-ion battery, long-distance opticalcommunication system using optical disc technology, ultra-sensitive 2D simultaneous image sensor,
and low-cost radar with no mechanical rotating parts and so on. These technologies have high aﬃnity
to terrestrial technology, and they are expected to create innovation both in Space and on Earth.