Biography

Professor Kawaguchi is an Aerospace Professor in the School of Engineering. He has had a long and distinguished career in solar system exploration, having been engaged in the development of several interplanetary spacecraft and two moon exploration satellites, and serving on the Board of Trustees of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA). For more information, please see theselinks.

Research

Professor Kawaguchi's most notable achievement is his role as Project Manager of the Hayabusa Mission from 1996 - 2011, during which time he organised the successful touchdown to surface of a near-Earth asteroid Itokawa and returned the sample back to Australia in 2010. For more details of his research output and interests, please see his publications.

Interests

Asteroid navigation and characterisation, spacecraft, solar sails.

Activities Awards

• Guiness World Record Award, 2011
• The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Space Operations and Support Award for 2011, 2011
• IAA Team Achievement Award, 2011
• Space Achievement Award, National Space Foundation, 2012
• SpaceOps Achievment Award, AIAA/SpaceOps, 2012
• John Breakwell Memorial Award, IAC 2012, 2012

For a full list of activities and awards, please see Professor Kawaguchi's website.