MMX Project Team

Ken-ichiro MAKI

  (牧 謙一郎)

Profile Information

Affiliation
Researcher, Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
宇宙機応用工学研究系
Degree
Master course(Tokyo Denki University)
Doctor of engineering(The University of Tokyo)

J-GLOBAL ID
200901003622736036
researchmap Member ID
1000367993

External link

Papers

 17
  • Yasuhiro Kawakatsu, Kiyoshi Kuramoto, Tomohiro Usui, Hitoshi Ikeda, Kent Yoshikawa, Hirotaka Sawada, Naoya Ozaki, Takane Imada, Hisashi Otake, Kenichiro Maki, Masatsugu Otsuki, Robert Muller, Kris Zacny, Yasutaka Satoh, Stephane Mary, Markus Grebenstein, Ayumu Tokaji, Liang Yuying, Ferran Gonzalez Franquesa, Nishanth Pushparaj, Takuya Chikazawa
    Proceedings of the International Astronautical Congress, IAC, 2020-October, 2020  Peer-reviewed
    Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) is a mission to Martian moons under development in JAXA with international partners to be launched in 2024. This paper introduces the system definition and the latest status of MMX program. “How was water delivered to rocky planets and enabled the habitability of the solar system?” This is the key question to which MMX is going to answer in the context of our minor body exploration strategy preceded by Hayabusa and Hayabusa2. Solar system formation theories suggest that small bodies as comets and asteroids were delivery capsules of water, volatiles, organic compounds etc. from outside of the snow line to entitle the rocky planet region to be habitable. Mars was at the gateway position to witness the process, which naturally leads us to explore two Martian moons, Phobos and Deimos, to answer to the key question. The goal of MMX is to reveal the origin of the Martian moons, and then to make a progress in our understanding of planetary system formation and of primordial material transport around the border between the inner- and the outer-part of the early solar system. The mission is to survey two Martian moons, and return samples from one of them, Phobos. In view of the launch in 2024, the phase-A study was completed in February, 2020. The mission definition, mission scenario, system definition, critical technologies and programmatic framework are introduced int this paper.
  • Susumu Sasaki, Koji Tanaka, Ken-ichiro Maki
    PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE, 101(6) 1438-1447, Jun, 2013  Peer-reviewed
    A solar power satellite (SPS) is a renewable energy system that converts the sun's energy into electricity in space and transmits it to Earth using microwaves. The SPS concept, first proposed in 1968 in the United States, has recently started attracting increased public attention as a promising energy system that can be used to resolve global environmental and energy problems. One of the most challenging technologies for the SPS is microwave power transmission from the geostationary orbit to the ground. The technologies for microwave power transmission have been studied for more than 40 years since the initial demonstrations in the 1960s; however, for SPS application, considerable research, especially on high-efficiency power conversion between direct current (dc) and radio frequency (RF) and on high-accuracy microwave beam control over a long range, is still needed. This paper introduces the concept of SPS and presents the technologies and issues associated with microwave power transmission from space to ground. Current research status and the future development prospects for microwave power transmission toward commercial SPS use are also described.
  • Koji Tanaka, Kenichiro Maki, Susumu Sasaki
    Proceedings of the International Astronautical Congress, IAC, 9 6644-6648, 2013  
    We are developing a phased-array antenna system as a bread board model (BBM) for space experiments using a small scientific satellite toward the solar power satellite (SPS). The purposes of the space experiments are to demonstrate a precise directional control of wireless power transmission (WPT) technology from space to the ground and to clarify the propagation characteristics of the microwave power in the ionosphere. A phased-array antenna possesses a potential for precise beam directional control and beam forming by controlling an amplitude and phase of the microwave from each antenna element. We designed and fabricated the BBM in order to evaluate an effect of amplitude and phase error of the microwave circuits produced at the time of the manufacturing and generated by temperature fluctuation on the microwave beam control. Copyright © 2013 by the International Astronautical Federation. All rights reserved.
  • Susumu Sasaki, Koji Tanaka, Kenichiro Maki
    Proceedings of the International Astronautical Congress, IAC, 9 6614-6618, 2013  
    The commercial life of Solar Power Satellite (SPS) is usually considered to be 30-40 years. However the disposal plan after expiration of its life has not been well studied so far. This paper describes the life analysis of SPS by evaluating the radiation and debris (meteoroid) environment, and proposes a replacement scenario at the end of life to prevent generating space junk. The SPS basic model (tethered-SPS) is used for this study. If we set an allowable degradation level at 15-20 % for the commercial life 5-10 % by radiation degradation, 5 % by hyper-velocity impact loss, and 5% by spontaneous electrical failure, 40 years life is expected in the following assumptions (1) photovoltaic cells with high radiation-resistance (5-10 % degradation at 2.5 × 1015/cm2 (1 MeV electron equivalent fluences)), (2) redundant tether wires (tape tether) of more than 15 mm wide, and (3) modularized structure for the power generation/transmission panel with a module size of 0.5m × 0.5m, beyond that the impact damage does not propagate. In the end of life scenario, new units of SPS are transported to the geostationary orbit from the ground and are exchanged for degraded units, and then the degraded units are transported to the ground for refurbishment. The replacement operation starts near the end of life and is completed in a year in the same way as the initial construction. The replacement operation does not generate any junk in the orbit. This scenario is heavily dependent on the space transportation system between the ground and the orbit, consisting of reusable launch vehicle (RLV) and orbit transfer vehicle (OTV). Copyright © 2013 by the International Astronautical Federation. All rights reserved.
  • Koji Uematsu, Ken-ichiro Maki, Chiko Otani
    OPTICS EXPRESS, 20(20) 22914-22921, Sep, 2012  Peer-reviewed
    A terahertz (THz) beam steering method is demonstrated by applying the characteristic of grating lobe (GL) radiation from a linear array antenna and the interference of femtosecond optical pulses. A photoconductive device is illuminated by two femtosecond laser beams combined at an angle of less than 0.5 degrees. Considering the interference pattern as a THz point source array, THz GL radiation is generated through the superposition of radiation emitted from all point sources and steered by varying the interval of the interference pattern. The THz beam direction could be changed by 20 degrees at 0.93THz by varying the relative incidence angle of the pump beams by 0.033 degrees. (C) 2012 Optical Society of America

Misc.

 26
  • Nagaoka Yoichi, Tanaka Koji, Maki Ken-ichiro, Sasaki Susumu
    Meeting Abstracts of the Physical Society of Japan, 68 176-176, 2013  
  • Nagaoka Yoichi, Maki Ken-ichiro, Tanaka Koji, Sasaki Susumu
    Meeting Abstracts of the Physical Society of Japan, 67 190-190, 2012  
  • Ken-Ichiro Maki, Masashi Takahashi, Kengo Miyashiro, Koji Tanaka, Susumu Sasaki, Kousuke Kawahara, Yukio Kamata, Kimiya Komurasaki
    2012 IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Workshop Series on Innovative Wireless Power Transmission: Technologies, Systems, and Applications, IMWS-IWPT 2012 - Proceedings, 131-134, 2012  Peer-reviewed
    Toward the orbital demonstration of a solar power satellite (SPS), a breadboard model of the SPS has been developed for preliminary experiments including wireless power transmission. The model forms a thin panel structure with a thickness of 6 cm, and the panel consists of three layers being functionally assigned to a transmission antenna, microwave amplification and control, and thermal radiation, respectively. Microwave amplified up to 160 W is emitted from a large-scale phased array antenna with 256 microstrip elements. In order to evaluate the effect of multiply arranged antennas to the emission, the measurement of the radiation pattern is conducted for different relative positions of the antenna panels. Additionally, the steering of the transmission beam is achieved as an initial demonstration for retrodirective control. © 2012 IEEE.
  • Koji Tanaka, Maki Kenichiro, Masashi Takahashi, Tadashi Ishii, Susumu Sasaki
    2012 IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Workshop Series on Innovative Wireless Power Transmission: Technologies, Systems, and Applications, IMWS-IWPT 2012 - Proceedings, 191-194, 2012  Peer-reviewed
    We are developing a bread board model for a microwave wireless power transmission (WPT) from a satellite in orbit to the ground. WPT using microwaves is one of the critical and important technologies toward a solar power satellite (SPS). We have carried out a conceptual design and proposed a space experiment using a scientific small satellite which has been developing by JAXA. The purposes of the space experiments are to demonstrate a precise directional control of WPT technology for SPS, which includes the direct detection of rectenna sites, and the microwave beam control skill with high angular precision, and to clarify the propagation characteristics of the microwave power in the ionosphere. Performances of the breadboard were measured and evaluated. Thermal transient characteristics of the breadboard model were simulated. © 2012 IEEE.
  • Maki Ken-ichiro, Otani Chiko, Shibuya Takayuki, Suizu Koji, Kawase Kodo
    Proceedings of the IEICE General Conference, 2009(1) "S-54"-"S-55", Mar 4, 2009  

Presentations

 2

Professional Memberships

 2

Research Projects

 19