On stellar cosmos

I like to look up at the starry night sky. The faint flickering light of stars I see now was emitted billions of light years ago; it's awesome! The mystery of the cosmos has been unveiled little by little with the progress of science. Now people know universe is not a dark and empty nothingness as people had perceived it to be but living organic extension of stars and planets. The pictures taken by the Hubble Space Telescope stimulate my imagination with their spectacular and mysterious images, even if they are colored by computer graphics. The picture above is "The Cat's Eye Nebula" by HST. (HUBBLESITE) The picture below is our mother Earth seen from Appolo 17 and is known as "Blue Marble".

Every star exists and every planet travels in the universe according to the Law of Universe. However, there are many man-made satellites placed in the orbit. Some are already defunct: now they exist just as space junk and are falling down to the Earth one by one. The purpose of the artificial satellites is varied ranging from weather forecast, global positioning, spy or military use, and so on. Some satellites are powered by nuclear. I feel chilled, and wonder how the space security is.

The return of space probe Hayabusa (about which I wrote on June 15th ) has proved effectiveness of various new technology, ion engines as the power to move a space probe far and long, automatic control technology, and others. I hope these will be developed to be useful for usual life of future generation, not only in space exploration. Some people think Japan has gotten technology to develop missiles that can pinpoint the target, seeing from the pin-point landing of HAYABUSA's capsule in Australian desert. After all, what is the difference between a rocket and a missile? When a warhead is attached to a rocket, it is a ballistic missile. When accurate pinpoint targeting device is added, it is a smart devastating missile. I hope that technology will never be utilized by vicious people.

I see both humans' dazzling capacities and equally dazzling incapacities. Our lives have gotten happier and more convenient but at the same time more miserable and more dangerous. What is the meaning of the emergence of a human being as a rational creature on the Earth?

"HAYABUSA: Back to the Earth"

Not only those who have been anticipated the return of space probe Hayabusa (meaning "falcon" for Japanese) but also those who hadn't known it at all till the other day would have been excited and overjoyed by the spectacular return of Hayabusa on June 13th, 2010, three years behind schedule. I was moved to see Hayabusa burning apart, streaking in the night sky like fireballs, on it's re-entering to the Earth after 7 years adventure to and from an asteroid Itokawa.
(See the moment of re-entry to the Earch.)

So, I went to Osaka Science Museum (located at Higobash, Osaka) to see a dome-movie made of computer graphics, HAYABUSA: Back to the Earth, at the planetarium. (Trailer) Actually going and seeing it had been a matter of time because my husband is very intereted in Hayabusa project. Some interested people would buy DVDs or Blue-ray Discs, but I wanted to see it at the planetarium. You would know why, if you have been to and know what it's like to have a view of 360 degrees sitting on a reclining seat at a planetarium. The movie is a brief record of Hayabusa's mission from May, 2003 to April, 2009.

"A lot of space probes were launched to the universe, but Hayabusa is the only one which is coming back to the Earth completing its mission." ....... "Only Japanese team has chosen 'ion engine' to move the space explorer." ........ While listening to the narration (the narrator called Hayabusa as "he" or "you") as I saw the film, something warm filled my heart and tears came into my eyes. Why? Because I saw heroic character in Hayabusa. Hayabusa is a robot which can think on its own (within the extent of programming), while it is operated by remote control from the Earth when possible. Since the launching, Hayabusa suffered lots of machine troubles and malfunctions one after another. Nevertheless, Hayabusa as well as the human team worked hard to overcome the troubles one by one with never-give-up spirits.

The planetarium was filled to the capacity (300 seats) today. I heard it had been rather sparse till the other day. Planetarium Hall schedule

These are videos (You Tube) explaining scientific details about HAYABUSA mission.
The Hayabusa Mission Asteroid Adventuer
The Great Challenges of HAYABUSA by JAXA