Category: Development

JAXA conducts a review by experts when reaching a project milestone to ensure that the developments are being carried out appropriately and whether it is OK to proceed to the next stage. The Hera-JAPAN Project Flight Readiness Review at JAXA, was held on September 17 to 30, 2024. The Review confirmed that the Japanese side’s preparations for launch were complete, and it was deemed appropriate to  continue to the next phase (launch and initial operation phase). The TIRI development that began in 2019 has reached a turning point, and the launch of Hera space craft is finally approaching. The TIRI development team is now preparing for the initial checkout, which is scheduled for a few days after the launch. We […]

At the end of November 2023, the manufacturing and environmental testing of the protoflight model (PFM) of the thermal infrared imager (TIRI) was completed, marking the completion of the PFM development (Figure 1)! The PFM is covered by black MLI to install on the spacecraft system. The PFM was shipped to the European Space Agency’s (ESA) European Space Technology Research Center (ESTEC) in December, to replace the TIRI Engineering Model (EM) which is now mounted on the Hera spacecraft, and to participate in Hera system tests. Figure 1: Protoflight model (PFM) of thermal infrared imager TIRI. Similar to the EM shipment, a commemorative photo was taken with the members of the Meisei Electric TIRI development team, the Hera in-house project […]

After manufacturing the engineering model (EM) of the Thermal Infrared Imager TIRI, we finished all environmental tests at the end of April 2023. And now, EM development has been completed! (Fig. 1) EM was handed over to the Hera spacecraft developer (OHB) through the European Space Agency (ESA) in early May, and is participating in the electrical test with the spacecraft system. Figure 1: Engineering model (EM) of Thermal Infrared Imager TIRI Before shipping the EM to Europe, we took a commemorative photo with the Meisei TIRI development team and the Hera JAPAN project team (Fig. 2). We realized that not only the people who helped us with the calibration test to understand the performance of TIRI, but also the […]