Taiwanese software successfully launched into space on Japanese rocket mission

A collaborative effort between Taiwan's National Chung Hsing University (NCHU) and National Tsing Hua University (NTHU) has successfully contributed software to a Japanese-led rocket mission. The mission, launched on June 12 from Japan, aims to investigate the mysterious origins of cosmic "excess light," a faint background glow in space that exceeds the light of galaxies and remains one of modern astronomy's significant unsolved puzzles.

The NCHU and NTHU teams were responsible for developing the software that processes and analyzes image data collected by the rocket's satellite. This software is crucial for understanding the origins of cosmic background light, marking a significant achievement for Taiwan's indigenous software development capabilities.

According to Associate Professor Tetsuya Hashimoto of NCHU's Physics Department, the "excess light" in the seemingly dark intergalactic space is a phenomenon that current science cannot fully explain. The mission, spearheaded by Japan's Kyushu Institute of Technology, focuses on observing background radiation in the visible light spectrum.

“

The data receiving system and the subsequent data processing and correction system all use software developed by the collaborative efforts of Associate Professor Tetsuya Hashimoto and Professor Tomotsugu Goto, allowing Taiwan's independently developed software to successfully enter space and perform its mission.

The developed software plays a vital role in the data reception, processing, and correction systems. It helps to repair, calibrate, and remove noise from the collected images, thereby reconstructing them for accurate analysis. This process is essential for providing critical evidence for the research.

Professor Tomotsugu Goto of NTHU's Institute of Astronomy, a collaborator on the software development, highlighted its importance. The software is described as the "soul" of the space mission, enabling the analysis of data collected by small satellites observing celestial bodies. Without this software, the images captured at extremely high speeds, often appearing as "star trails" and contaminated with stray light, would be unusable for research. The project is part of the Ministry of Education's integrated UAAT-KOOU program, focusing on space technology exploration and data science applications.

“

The low-orbit satellite launched in this mission travels at 7 kilometers per second. Under such extreme speeds, the captured images become 'star trails,' and much stray light is collected. It all relies on the software developed by Hashimoto and Goto's team to help correct the images to a recognizable state for research. It can be called the soul of this space mission.