Japan launches H-2A rocket, deploys satellite
January 24, 2006Japan's space agency on Tuesday successfully launched a domestically made H-2A rocket carrying a land-observation satellite from the Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture and placed the satellite in orbit. The No. 8 version of the H-2A rocket carrying the Advanced Land Observing Satellite, nicknamed ''Daichi,'' lifted off at 10:33 a.m. as scheduled, and the satellite was successfully separated at around 10:50 a.m. at an altitude of about 700 kilometers, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said.
Institute develops humanoid robot with improved vision
January 24, 2006The National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology has developed a humanoid robot with improved vision which enables it to carry out tasks such as fetching a can of orange juice from a refrigerator, institute officials said Tuesday. The institute, which has been developing the humanoid robot HRP-2 ''Promet'' for some time, enhanced the robot's vision by adding to it four high-precision cameras that enable it to recognize its own location.
Japan team drills more than 3,000 meters into Antarctic ice
January 24, 2006Japan's Antarctic research team has drilled 3,028.52 meters into the Antarctic ice sheet at the Japanese research base known as Dome Fuji, the education ministry said Tuesday. The ice samples, which are estimated to be about 1 million years old and presumably the oldest excavated so far in the world, will be used to study global climate change in the past, said scientists at the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.