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Oyama Lab
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The lab studies aerodynamics and design for space exploration, including airplanes that fly in the Martian sky.
AboutAbout the lab
Reading airflow to design spacecraft
The Oyama Lab studies aerodynamics and design in space engineering.
Its main themes are airplanes and helicopters that fly in Mars's thin atmosphere, and the lab has also conducted flight tests of a Mars airplane using a high-altitude balloon.
The lab also works on sample-return capsules, the flight of rockets launched from Mars, multi-objective design of rockets and spacecraft, and flow control.
Students can conduct research directly connected to JAXA space science projects, and JAXA's supercomputers and wind tunnels are also available to them.
Key terms
- Reynolds number
- A number that shows how strong the momentum of a flow is compared with the viscosity of the fluid. It becomes small in a thin atmosphere.
- Multi-objective evolutionary computation
- A computational method that imitates biological evolution and searches for a set of design candidates at once while considering multiple conflicting goals simultaneously.
- Plasma actuator
- A device that applies voltage to electrodes to turn part of the air into plasma and move the flow near the surface of an object.
NewsLab news
A master's student received the Outstanding Presentation Award at the Fluid Dynamics Conference/ANSS
A lab team won first place in the optimization competition at IEEE WCCI 2024
The Mars airplane test team led by Prof. Oyama received the Space Frontier Award
A master's student was selected for a Student Award at the Northern Branch Conference of the Japan Society for Aeronautical and Space Sciences
A master's student's paper was selected for the Showcase at the AIAA SciTech 2024 Forum
ResearchResearch themes
The lab studies airflow (aerodynamics) and design in the field of space engineering. Using both numerical simulation and experiments, it works on Mars airplanes and helicopters, sample return, multi-objective design exploration, and flow control.
*Illustrative imageMars Airplanes and Helicopters
The lab studies airplanes and helicopters for Mars exploration that fly in Mars's very thin atmosphere. The main themes are aerodynamic characteristics and aerodynamic design under low Reynolds number and high Mach number conditions that are not found on Earth.
*Illustrative imageSample Return Research
For missions that bring samples from celestial bodies back to Earth, the lab uses computational fluid dynamics simulation to investigate the attitude stability of capsules re-entering the atmosphere and the flight of rockets launched from Mars.
*Illustrative imageMulti-Objective Design Exploration
This research applies multi-objective evolutionary computation to the design of rockets and spacecraft, where aerodynamics, structure, propulsion, and other factors are closely intertwined. Applications include the design of aerospike nozzles and the trajectory design of space exploration missions.
*Illustrative imageFlow Control
Using computational fluid dynamics simulation and wind tunnel experiments, the lab investigates how devices such as plasma actuators and synthetic jets control flow.
MembersFaculty
The members of the Oyama Lab consist of faculty members, doctoral, master's, and undergraduate students, and collaborators.As of 2026
- ProfessorAkira Oyama
VoicesStudent voices
Compiled from answers by students who were in the lab. Ratings and reviews reflect individual students' experiences, not the lab's official views.
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Report an errorAbout the images
The top and research theme images are illustrative and were not taken at the lab. They are cropped from Wikimedia Commons images. Cropped CC BY-SA images are provided under the same CC BY-SA license as the original (version shown on each line).
- Top image: “Ingenuity Helicopter Deployment Successful” NASA JPL / Public domain (cropped)
- Mars Airplanes and Helicopters: “Subscale Glider Could Assist in Weather Studies, Prediction (AFRC )” NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center / Lauren Hughes / Public domain (cropped)
- Sample Return Research: “Mars Sample Retrieval Lander 1-Mars Ascent Vehicle Launch Illustration” NASA/ESA/JPL-Caltech / Public domain (cropped)
- Multi-Objective Design Exploration: “Twin Linear Aerospike XRS-2200 Engine edit” NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (NASA-MSFC), edited by ed g2s / Public domain (cropped)
- Flow Control: “Plasma actuator MARHy” Sandra c / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (姫野研究室): “Compressor case from turbojet” Olivier Cleynen / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (今村研究室
（航 空 機設計研究室） ): “A340 wake turbulence simulation” Deutsches Zentrum für Luft und Raumfahrt / CC BY 3.0 de (cropped) - Related lab (津江・中谷研究室): “Combustion research ( )” Oak Ridge National Laboratory / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (寺本・
岡本研究室): “Shuttle Main Engine Test Firing” NASA / Public domain (cropped)
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