Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
A JAPANESE ASTRONAUT will become the first non-American to set foot on the Moon during one of NASA’s upcoming Artemis missions, US President Joe Biden has announced.
The offer to Japan – an opportunity many nations have long dreamed of – came as part of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s state visit, and as Washington seeks to strengthen ties with its key Asian ally.
“Two Japanese astronauts will join future American missions, and one will become the first non-American ever to land on the Moon,” Biden said in a press conference with Kishida.
Kishida hailed the announcement as a “huge achievement” and announced that Japan would in return supply a rover for the program.
NASA’s Artemis program seeks to return humans to the Moon for the first time in over 50 years, and to build a sustained lunar presence ahead of potential missions to Mars.
Between 1969 and 1972, the US Apollo program saw 12 Americans – all white men – walk on the Moon.
NASA previously announced that the Artemis program would see the first woman and the first person of color land on the Moon.
“America will no longer walk on the Moon alone,” NASA chief Bill Nelson said in a video published on social media.
“Diplomacy is good for discovery. And discovery is good for diplomacy,” he added.
The first mission to take astronauts to the lunar surface, Artemis 3, is planned for 2026. China meanwhile has said it seeks to put humans on the Moon by 2030.
Japan’s space agency JAXA is “extremely happy” about the announcement, a spokesman told AFP.
“We will do our best to implement the agreement,” including developing the rover for the program, he said.
Tokyo and Washington have worked together in the space sector for years, notably collaborating on operations at the International Space Station (ISS).
And this year, Japan became the fifth country to succeed in landing a spacecraft on the Moon, with its SLIM craft touching down in January.
In a joint media release, the United States and Japan clarified that a Japanese national would land on the Moon “assuming important benchmarks are achieved,” without clarifying further.
The lunar rover provided by Japan in return will be pressurized, meaning astronauts can travel farther and work for longer periods on the lunar surface, according to the statement.
It added that the pressurized rover will accommodate two astronauts in the “mobile habitat and laboratory” for up to 30 days as they explore the area near the lunar South Pole.
NASA currently plans to use the rover on the future Artemis 7 mission, followed by subsequent missions over a 10-year lifespan.
The European Space Agency (ESA) has three seats reserved for future Artemis missions in exchange for technological contributions to the program.
However, it is still unclear whether European astronauts will have the chance to step foot on the Moon or just fly around it.
Daniel Neuenschwander, director of human and robotic exploration at the ESA, said these details of the agreement with NASA were still “subject to further discussions.”
Neuenschwander added in a phone interview with AFP on Wednesday that he could “perfectly understand” the cooperation between the United States and Japan, acknowledging “geostrategic” motives for the agreement.
The Artemis space program was inaugurated in 2022 with Artemis 1, which successfully flew an uncrewed vessel around the Moon.
Artemis 2 is planned for 2025 and will send four astronauts around the Moon without landing. The crew will consist of three Americans and a Canadian, who are currently in training.
The first crewed landing on the Moon will be Artemis 3, currently scheduled for 2026. NASA has not yet announced who will take part in the mission.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
One things for sure, be plenty of photos.
Absolute disgrace. There should be a lgbtq12# him/her/ they/us allowed on the moon. And there better be a universal gender toilet in the capsule
@Kelechi Ademola: Getting annoyed at a fictional scenario you cooked up in your own head is a great skill.
@Setanta O’Toole: Annoyed? I thought he was serious.
@Kelechi Ademola: snowflake
Poppycock, I’m nearly certain Wallace & Gromit were up there!
@Ciaran Enright: didn’t they also discover the moon was made of cheese, or am I mistaken?
@Larissa Caroline Nikolaus: Not the first to discover this. Wanderly Wagon knew this. Rory was away for yonks saving the cheese moon from being eaten by mice.
We’ll guess hs name I suppose….
They’ll discover a Kaiju there.
You are correct, in a way. It does matter to the Journal readership that someone’s gender or skin complexion remains something to celebrate; after all, most here are cheerleaders for the Victorian prejudice conviction that all biology converges to a point of white male dominance as a pinnacle of humanity and creation.
The contagion of 19th-century convictions still dominates this era, so rather than politicians working to society’s advantage, they are driven by academic administrators who owe their allegiance to the enlightenment subculture.
I am not a victim, so I stand out and pay no heed to mob reactions of writers and commenters who are eager to retain natural selection and other monstrosities of humanity.
@Gerald Kelleher: Right, so how are butterflies created?
@Alan
Darwin tells you that white complexion society (apart from the Irish) evolved out of black complexion people, who in turn, evolved out of gorillas.
“the civilised races of man will almost certainly exterminate, and replace, the savage races throughout the world. The break between man and his nearest allies will then be wider, for it will intervene between man in a more civilised state, as we may hope, even than the Caucasian, and some ape as low as a baboon, instead of as now between the Negro or Australian and the gorilla.” — Charles Darwin
Commenter are permitted to say anything they like about politicians, but society is driven by academic admins and their helpless victims like yourself.
@Gerald Kelleher: Humans did not evolve from gorillas or any other modern primate. We share a common ancestry. In much the same way that you are not descended from your own cousin, but you do both have a grandparent in common.
@Kevin
Very few experience or have the stomach to revisit natural selection as prejudice
” In the brain of the lowest savages, and, as far as we yet know, of the pre-historic races, we have an organ so little inferior in size and complexity to that of the highest types (such as the average European). The higher moral faculties and those of pure intellect and refined emotion are useless to them, are rarely if ever manifested, and have no relation to their wants, desires, or well-being. How, then, was an organ developed so far beyond the needs of its possessor? Natural selection could only have endowed the savage with a brain a little superior to that of an ape, whereas he actually possesses one but very little inferior to that of the average members of our learned societies” Wallace
Send up Pikachu, alf if ever there was such a thing!
It’s amazing how spread out the missions are compared to Apollo when there was a mission every few months in the lead up to the first landing and afterwards until Proxmire pulled the plug.
@Steve O’Hara-Smith: Space exploration was very new in the 60′s. 90% of these space flights were test flights, before Apollo 11, which put 2 men on the moon. Also, competition with Russia increased the urgency and frequency of space flight tests. The US pulled out a huge budget not seen since, in making sure the US was the first to win the “Space Race” to the moon.
Ridiculous article. Have they simply forgotten the multiple USSR trips to the moon.
have your say