International exploration missions

By escaping from the atmosphere and exploring planets in space, we can obtain valuable data that cannot be obtained from the ground. Our group has been involved in more than 16 space exploration missions including JIKIKEN, Akebono, Geotail, Nozomi, Kaguya, Reimei, AKATSUKI, HISAKI, MAVEN, TGO, BeppiColombo, MMX, and JUICE, and have a lot of great experients of international and domestic collaborations. We have been exploring the unknown with world-wide teamwork. We have recently investigated the ionospheric escape by the NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft, and vertical coupling and water cycle in the Martian atmosphere by the ESA’s TGO spacecraft. We are also responsible for an important role in the future Japanese projects such as the sample return MMX. Graduate students of our group are aggressively working in the world’s most advanced research environment by participating in the latest exploration missions abroad.