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Propulsion and Energy Systems Engineering Lab
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A lab building next-generation rocket engines with detonation, a combustion wave.
AboutAbout the lab
From the fundamentals of combustion waves to engine innovation.
The Kasahara Lab conducts basic research on detonation, a combustion wave that propagates at hypersonic speed, and applied research on using it in rocket engines and jet engines.
Detonation is expected to make combustors and engines much smaller and higher-performing, and research on it is now active worldwide.
In 2021, using a sounding rocket of the JAXA Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, the lab became the first in the world to succeed in a flight demonstration test of a detonation engine in space.
In 2024, it also conducted a sounding rocket experiment with a liquid-fuel engine, and from fiscal year 2026 onward it will take on a third experiment.
Key terms
- Detonation
- A phenomenon in which combustion propagates at hypersonic speed, faster than sound. It advances together with a strong shock wave.
- Sounding rocket
- A relatively small rocket launched to make observations or conduct experiments in space or the upper atmosphere.
- Rotating detonation engine
- An engine in which a detonation wave keeps circulating inside a cylindrical combustor, producing thrust from its force.
- Thruster
- A small propulsion device used to finely change a spacecraft's orientation or position.
NewsLab news
A paper on detonation engine flight experiments on a sounding rocket was selected as one of AIAA's 100 commemorative papers
A student won the Miura Award
A student won the Outstanding Student Award from the Society of Instrument and Control Engineers
A student won the Higashiyama Award
A master's student won the Best Presentation Award at the interim master's thesis presentation of the Department of Aerospace Engineering
ResearchResearch themes
The lab conducts basic research on detonation (hypersonic combustion) and applied research on its use in aerospace propulsion systems such as rocket engines and jet engines. Its work ranges from combustor experiments to flight demonstrations in space using sounding rockets.
Flight Demonstration of Detonation Engines
Through flight tests, the lab investigates the flight characteristics and thrust performance of detonation engines in real flight conditions. In 2013, in joint research with other universities, JAXA, and others, it succeeded in a flight test of the demonstrator "TODOROKI II."
Rotating Detonation Engines
By visualizing the flow inside the combustor, the lab studies how the rotating detonation engine (RDE) operates and how thrust is generated. It also evaluates performance by comparing theoretical calculations with thrust tests.
*Illustrative imagePulse Detonation Engines for Attitude Control
The lab conducts attitude control experiments with a pulse detonation rocket engine and compares its performance as a thruster with that of existing thrusters. In the future, it aims for practical use as attitude control thrusters for spacecraft and landers.
MembersFaculty
The Kasahara Lab consists of faculty members, a visiting associate professor, doctoral, master's, and undergraduate students, research students, and administrative assistants.As of 2026
- ProfessorJiro Kasahara
- Project ProfessorMasaaki Yasui
- Project ProfessorTatsuo Namikawa
- Associate ProfessorKen Matsuoka
- Project Associate ProfessorYoshihiro Kawamata
- Project Assistant ProfessorYuichiro Ide
- Project Assistant ProfessorCottenot Camille
- Project Assistant ProfessorYusuke Nakamura
- Project Assistant ProfessorMhedine Alicherif
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Report an errorAbout the images
For images provided to us or used with permission, the source is listed on each line. Wikimedia Commons images are illustrative and were not taken at the lab (they are cropped). Cropped CC BY-SA images are provided under the same CC BY-SA license as the original (version shown on each line).
- Top image: “Rotating Detonation Engine Operating in Space” 推進エネルギーシステム工学研究グループ / Used with the lab's permission (cropped)
- Flight Demonstration of Detonation Engines: “Launch of a sounding rocket” 推進エネルギーシステム工学研究グループ / Used with the lab's permission (cropped)
- Rotating Detonation Engines: “Combustion test of a rotating detonation engine” 推進エネルギーシステム工学研究グループ / Used with the lab's permission (cropped)
- Pulse Detonation Engines for Attitude Control: “STS Thruster” NASA / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (Shock Wave and Space Propulsion Lab): “RS-68 rocket engine test” NASA / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (Data-Driven Systems Lab): “Macintosh Computer Lab” Mbrickn / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Thermal Control Engineering Lab (2)): “Iss071e582160 (Sept. 3, 2024) --- NASA astronaut and Expedition 71 Flight Engineer Jeanette Epps replaces and cleans research components inside the Destiny laboratory module's Combustion Integrated Rack” NASA Johnson Space Center / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (Aerospace Vehicle Motion Systems Engineering Lab): “LICIACube CubeSat a companion satellite of Dart Spacecraft” NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ed Whitman / Public domain (cropped)
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