Japan to Recruit First Astronauts Since 2008
In 2021, Japan will recruit astronauts for the first time in 13 years. The country's science minister, Koichi Hagiuda, announced the news on October 23, saying the government will be taking applications next fall.
Since 1983, Japan has taken on new astronaut recruits approximately every decade. However, Hagiuda said that the country will now take applications approximately every five years to make sure it always has a group of astronauts ready.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency currently has seven astronauts. When the agency last recruited astronauts in 2008, 963 people applied, with three being successful. All three have since traveled to space.
To date, 12 Japanese people have flown in space. The first was journalist Toyohiro Akiyama, who traveled to the Russian Mir Space Station aboard a Soyuz spacecraft in December 1990.
Japan now hopes to see the first Japanese person on the moon before the end of the decade. In July, it agreed to work with the US on the NASA-led Artemis program, which aims to send people back to the moon by 2024, and will also put the first woman on the moon. The last time a human set foot on the moon was in 1972.
On October 26, NASA also announced that there may be more water on the moon than had been previously thought. Ice had previously been found in dark craters at the moon's poles, but now water has been found on the moon's sunlit surface as well. This discovery could help future exploration, as the water could be used both for life support and to make rocket fuel.
NASA hopes to use what it learns through the Artemis program to send astronauts to Mars by the 2030s.
