The production method of micro sacrificial plastic mold insert metal injection molding, namely process has been proposed to solve specific problems involving the miniaturization of MIM. Two types of sacrificial plastic molds (SP-mold) with fine structures were used: 1) PMMA resist, 2) PMMA mold injected into Ni-electroform, which is a typical LIGA () process. Stainless steel 316L feedstock was injection-molded into the SP-molds with multi-pillar structures. This study focused on the effects of metal particle size and processing conditions on the shrinkage, transcription and surface roughness of sintered parts.

The first Space-VLBI project, VSOP, started successfully with the launch of the dedicated space-VLBI satellite HALCA in 1997. The project has been in scientific operation in the 1.6 GHz and 5 GHz bands, and studies have been done mainly of the jet phenomena related to active galactic nuclei. A second generation space- VLBI project, VSOP-2, has been planned by the working group formed at ISAS/JAXA with many collaborators. The spacecraft is planned to observe in the 8, 22 and 43 GHz bands with cooled receivers for the two higher bands, and with a maximum angular resolution at 43 GHz (7 mm) of about 40 micro-arcseconds. The VSOP-2 satellite will also have the capability of the phase-reference and full polarization observations, which will produce more powerful results than those of the VSOP project. Far-future space-VLBI projects following VSOP and VSOP-2, have a large potential to achieve enough resolution and sensitivity to satisfy astronomers in future.