Artemis Gateway orbiting the moon. (Credit: NASA)
TOKYO (NASA PR) – President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida met in Tokyo on Monday to announce progress on collaboration for human and robotic lunar missions. They confirmed their commitment to include a Japanese astronaut aboard the Lunar Gateway outpost and their shared ambition to see a future Japanese astronaut land on the moon as part of NASA’s Artemis program.
“In recent years, the alliance between Japan and the United States has become stronger, deeper and more capable as we work together to meet new challenges, as important as opportunities, in a changing world. quickly, “President Biden said. “A good example of this: we saw the lunar rover from Japan … a symbol of how our space cooperation is taking off, looking at the moon and Mars. And I’m excited about the work we’re going to do together at the station Gateway around the Moon and I hope the first Japanese astronaut will join us on the lunar surface mission under the Artemis program. ”
The United States and Japan are working to formalize the inclusion of the Japanese astronaut in Gateway through an implementation agreement later this year.
“Our shared ambition to see Japanese and American astronauts walking on the moon together reflects the shared values of our nations to explore space responsibly and transparently for the benefit of humanity here on Earth,” he said. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson “With this historic announcement, President Biden is once again showing nations around the world that the United States will not go it alone, but with like-minded partners. Under Artemis, our intention is to invest and explore the cosmos with countries that promote science. , economic opportunities and a common set of shared values ”.
As part of ongoing collaborations on space and earth science missions, President Biden and Prime Minister Kishida reaffirmed the continued cooperation of the United States and Japan in the exchange of Earth science data. to improve the scientific understanding of the Earth’s climate change.
In addition, the President confirmed the intention of the United States to provide Japan with a sample of the asteroid Bennu in 2023, collected from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission. Japan provided the United States with an asteroid sample collected by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) Hayabusa2 Asteroid Sample Return Mission in 2021.
JAXA is also a key partner of NASA in helping the agency achieve its goals in science and human exploration, including on the International Space Station and through Artemis. In 2020, Japan became an original signatory to the Artemis agreements and finalized an agreement with NASA to provide various capabilities for Gateway’s I-HAB, which will provide the core of Gateway’s life support capabilities. and an additional space where the crew will live, work and drive. research during Artemis missions. JAXA’s planned contributions include I-HAB’s environmental control and life support system, batteries, thermal control and imaging components, which ESA (European Space Agency) will integrate into the module prior to launch. These capabilities are critical to Gateway’s sustained operations during periods of manned and unmanned time.
To learn more about NASA’s Artemis missions, visit: