The Kawaguchi Laboratory, located on the ISAS / JAXA campus, welcomes active students from all over the world.

Focusing on guidance, navigation and control of space systems, we are developing advanced space technologies. At Kawaguchi Lab, students are not only able to study mission-oriented research topics, but also to join large-scale space projects organized by ISAS & JSPEC / JAXA. Our research programs are supervised by Professor Jun’ichiro Kawaguchi and world-class researchers.

We study varieties of mission-oriented topics such as spacecraft astrodynamics, solar sail dynamics, spacecraft guidance, navigation and control, and planetary science. Another unique feature at Kawaguchi Lab is that we have also a lot of opportunities to test our results in real conditions; thus, we can learn not only from theoretical analysis but also have chances to experiment.

We are currently involved in the solar power sail demonstration project IKAROS (Interplanetary Kite-craft Accelerated by Radiation Of the Sun), which uses Sun light to generate electrical power and accelerate. Kawaguchi Laboratory has had a center role in creating the technology of the propulsion system. Moreover, we contribute to proposing new ideas about structure and materials for the spacecraft.

For an introduction to our laboratory (in Japanese), please click here.