Activities for the Future

Space Compass

NTT Corporation (NTT) and SKY Perfect JSAT Corporation (SKY Perfect JSAT) established a joint venture company that will launch a novel integrated space computing network to aid the realization of a sustainable society. The joint venture will take on the challenge of building new infrastructures in space, where business led by the private sector is expected to grow in the future, and contribute to the creation of a sustainable society.

Space Data Center: High-capacity communication and computing infrastructure in space

In FY2024, Space Compass will launch an optical data relay service for high-speed transmission to the ground via a geostationary orbit (GEO) satellite. This will carry a vast amount of diverse data collected in space by observation satellites. Existing services, which transmit data directly to ground stations, have communication capacity limits imposed by the use of radio waves as well as limits on the time at which ground stations can communicate with observation satellites. In contrast, optical transmission via a GEO will enable high-capacity, quasi-real-time data transmission.

Space Radio Access Network (RAN) business: communication infrastructure for beyond-5G/6G

Space Compass will use high altitude platform stations (HAPSs) to provide low-latency communication services in Japan in FY2025. HAPSs make it easy to expand communication service coverage to a wider area, enabling to provide highly reliable direct-to-mobile phone communication in times of disaster, high-capacity communication for ships and aircraft, and communications services for distant islands and remote areas. Mobile carriers can improve the overall cost-effectiveness and energy efficiency of their mobile networks by combining HAPSs with an increase in the number of their terrestrial base stations to expand their service coverage.

Space Debris Removal with Laser Technology

Space debris are becoming increasingly, threatening our continued human and technological presence in space. SKY Perfect JSAT has started the development of a satellite which enables to remove uncontrollable satellites, preventing the increase of Space Debris with laser technology.

As a pioneering space utilization corporation, SKY Perfect JSAT has been providing satellite communication services in Japan and overseas for more than 30 years since launching JCSAT-1, the first communications satellite by a private Japanese corporation, in 1989. In an effort to expand its existing services, SKY Perfect JSAT launched a new project aiming to maintain a sustainable space environment. This project was implemented under an internal start-up system and pre-study started in 2018 to study next-generation businesses. Through industry-academia collaboration, the feasibility of the project was researched and reviewed.

Although there are various methods for removing space debris, JSAT decided to use the laser method, which has the two notable advantages listed below.

●　The method is very safe because there is no physical contact.
●　Fuel is not needed to move the space debris since thrust is generated by material vaporization and ionization of the space debris surface, making this the method highly economical. Since it is not necessary for the laser satellite to carry fuel for moving the space debris, this method is highly economical.

Through cooperation with RIKEN, which has a record of fundamental development for lasers, SKY Perfect JSAT confirmed the feasibility of the technology by conducting a propulsion generation experiment using laser ablation. In order to develop the main mission equipment for the satellite, the Satellite Orbital State Control Laser Laboratory was officially established in April 2020 as an integrated collaborative research system team within RIKEN. Through collaboration with Nagoya University and Kyushu University, the Laboratory will design and develop (including review) of a laser-equipped satellite. Besides the laser mission equipment and satellite development led by SKY Perfect JSAT, an early-phase concept study of satellite and ground systems will be cooperatively performed under the framework of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency Space Innovation through Partnership and Co-creation (J-SPARC) program.