Japan’s Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is celebrating after the successful Sunday launch of its Innovative Satellite Technology Demonstration No. 4, which is packed with 16 intriguing payloads.

The aim of JAXA’s Innovative Satellite Technology Demonstration Program is to test ideas proposed by researchers from academia and private industry. The space agency issues an open call for proposals, then conducts a competitive evaluation process to select payloads. Advancing Japan’s capabilities in space, and the competitiveness of the nation’s space industry, are major goals of the program.

Sixteen experiments made the cut for this mission, which after a few weather-related delays made it into space on Sunday atop a Rocket Lab Electron that launched from New Zealand. You can watch the launch below.

Youtube Video

The main payload aboard the rocket was RAISE-4, a 110-kg satellite carrying eight experiments, including:

• LEOMI – an in-orbit demonstration of MIMO networking technology that aims to demonstrate a satellite internet-of-things platform;
• GEMINI – A “civilian” GPU to perform high-speed signal processing, and a new method of rapid software development for the platform;
• KIR-X – An experiment to use water as a propellant for satellites;
• TDS-PPT – A pulsed plasma thruster (PPT) for small satellites to evaluate low-power, compact, and inexpensive electric propulsion for ultra-small and small satellites;
• AIRIS – An AI-powered experiment to detect other objects in orbit, downlinking minimal data, and learning from observations to improve performance.

The launch also carried eight CubeSats into space, including OrigamiSat-2. The 3U craft carries what JAXA describes as 10 cm cube containing “an unprecedentedly lightweight and highly packable deployable array antenna for space, with antenna elements attached to a two-layer deployable membrane that can be folded using origami techniques.”

When unfolded, the origami becomes “approximately 25 times larger” than the 10cm cube, giving the CubeSat a more efficient antenna.

Another interesting CubeSat on the mission is “WASEDA-SAT-ZERO-II,” as its creators at Waseda University 3D-printed the sat’s housing using a design that uses no screws, no mechanical parts, and hopefully produces zero debris. Within the housing is a membrane made of planar elements that also resemble origami and will help with deployment experiments.

Other CubeSats on the mission include:

• MAGNARO-II – Testing a new method for rotating and separating linked nanosatellites to form a constellation and demonstrate it in orbit;
• Mono-Nikko – An in-orbit demonstration of an intelligent power supply unit that can acquire status data of batteries installed in ultra-small spacecraft and quickly detect battery deterioration or abnormalities in orbit.
• PRELUDE – A sat equipped with a small electric field/plasma hybrid sensor to detect precursor phenomena and to perform global earthquake predictions.

JAXA plans to spend two months prepping the above experiments, and 13 months taking them for a spin.

The aerospace agency has already chosen two themes for a fifth Innovative Satellite Technology Demonstration – testing consumer-grade electronics in space, and testing a CubeSat with a propulsion system that enables maintenance – but has also announced the program will transition into a new form called the Space Technology Demonstration Acceleration Program (JAXA-STEPS). ®