One of the simplest pleasures of life is having clean underwear. Unfortunately, that may not always be available depending on conditions, so the next best thing would be stench-free underwear. Speaking of which, a Japanese astronaut by the name of Takai Doi has been field testing some high tech undies...

If you smell news, so do we. Turn to the full article after the jump for more info on this revolutionary intimate apparel.

To prove that the land of the rising sun has the technology to reach for the moon, Japan recently launched the Selenological and Engineering Explorer (SELENE), the biggest lunar mission since the Apollo landings. An orbiter named after the moon princess in a fairy tale, Kaguya, which weighs three metric tons was sent from Tanegashima island to explore uncharted polar areas of the moon.

The princess stripped 45 minutes into the flight, separating from its rocket near Chile's airspace. Japan's Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) planned for two successful orbits around the Earth before Kaguya reaches the moon to release two satellites equipped with high-definition cameras.

It took quite an effort before SELENE successfully took off, after previous failed attempts of rocket H-2 and H-2A which lost its path in 2003. Around US$ 479 million went to making the mission possible, but the Japanese scientists are quite proud with what they achieved.

Other countries are expected to follow suit in what seems to be a space race. China will launch its own craft later this year to do their own exploration, while India plans to join the scene by launching another rocket into space. The US has ideas for its own ventures, with a launch expected to kick off in 2008.

The sun's just way too hot to be able to take pictures really up close...right? Not. Thanks to the Solar Optical Telescope (SOT) aboard the Hinode spacecraft of Japan, we now have a "first light" image taken on October 23rd. The images you see below are actual solar granules, or those hot gas masses, whose movements are like that of boiling water sitting atop a hot stove. Those granules, every one of them, is reported to be as big as a terrestrial continent.

According to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), they now have confirmation that the "SOT is achieving a very high angular resolution of 0.2 archseconds, a primary objective of the instrument. How much is an archsecond? One is equal to 1/3600 of a degree. Putting it in a more visual perspective, it's approximately the "width of a human hair held thirty feet away".

The Hinode spacecraft set off to space on September 22nd from the Uchinoura Space Center, Kyushu, Japan. Carrying the Japanese term for sunrise, the Hinode's mission is to study the sun, particularly sunspots, the ones responsible for powerful flares and solar storms. Stashed on the Hinode are three advanced space telescopes: the SOT, the X-ray telescope (XRT), and the Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrometer (EIS).

The banner image above is the first solar image taken from Hinode's X-ray telescope on October 28th.

The Japanese infrared space telescope aboard the ASTRO-F that launched last February 21 has finally sent back its very first images.

AKARI beamed back images showing different wavelengths of the infrared spectrum from the M81 galaxy  (this is a spiral in the constellation of Ursa Major). The European Space Agency and JAXA are collaborating on this project to further explore the universe using the better sensitivity and improved spatial resolution of AKARI.

Scientists believe that using infrared space telescopes will help in mapping out the galaxies near our own, and hopefully they will also help in giving us a clearer picture of the universe. AKARI will continue on with its mission of discovering and studying fainter sources and more distant objects that weren't detected by previous infrared space telescopes.