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Assistant Professor    Araki, Hiroshi

Research Field

  • Planetary Science, APlanetary Geodesy

Brief Introduction of Research

  • My research activity is around the lunar and planetary geodesy or geomorphology, especially to investigate the internal structure of planetary bodies in the solar system and to contribute to understand the origin and evolution of our solar system bodies. I had been PI of laser altimeter (LALT) on Japanese lunar orbiter KAGUYA for 7 years and confirmed that lunar crust is more rigid than had been recognized on the analysis of lunar laser topography by LALT. I am now involved in the development of new corner reflector on the Moon for Lunar Laser Ranging and “In situ Lunar Orientation Measurement” telescope for the investigation of deeper lunar internal structure, and also concerned with laser altimeter(LIDAR) mission on HAYABUSA-2 and laser altimeter(GALA) development of JUICE (Jupiter Icy moon Explorer; ESA) project.

Main Research Achievements

  • Araki H., H. Noda, S. Tazawa, Y. Ishihara, S. Goossens, S. Sasaki, Lunar Laser Topography by LALT on board the KAGUYA Lunar Explore - Operational history, New topographic data, Peak height analysis of laser echo pulses -, Adv. Space Res. (in press).
  • Araki H., S. Tazawa, H. Noda, Y. Ishihara, S. Goossens, S. Sasaki, N. Kawano, I. Kamiya, H. Otake, J. Oberst and C. Shum, Lunar Global Shape and Polar Topography Derived from Kaguya-LALT Laser Altimetry, Science, 323, 897-900, (2009).
  • Araki, H., S. Tazawa, H. Noda, T.Tsubokawa, N. Kawano, and S. Sasaki, Observation of the lunar topography by the laser altimeter LALT on board Japanese lunar explorer (SELENE), Adv. Space Res., 42, 317-322, (2008) .
  • Araki Hiroshi: Focal Processes of Deep Moonquakes, J. Geod. Soc. Japan, 47, No.1, 2001, 508-513.

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