NASA has been quite psyched about the Project Artemis for some time and the latest member into Artemis has made the official entry. As it had said a few weeks back, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, which is commonly known as JAXA, has officially joined the quest NASA is taking to go the moon and return. JAXA would be one of the integral parts of creating the Lunar Gateway project, which would be building a space station near the satellite. The recommendation from the space policy committee was recently accepted by the Japanese government.
“The government made the decision on Friday at a meeting of the Strategic Headquarters for National Space Policy, attended by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and cabinet ministers. The members accepted Thursday’s panel recommendation that Japan should join NASA’s Lunar Gateway project as a base for missions to the moon,” reported NHK World. Some of the areas where JAXA could offer its assistance would be the creation of life support systems and air conditioning. The committee, however, is still discussing the extent to which JAXA would get involved in the Lunar Gateway project since monetary investments are also involved.
“We will express our intention at an early stage so we can strengthen our relationship of trust with the United States and by this, we expect Japanese astronauts will be able to take part in travel to the moon,” Yoshiyuki Kasai, chairman of the aforesaid committee, was quoted saying by The Japan Times, which also said that Tokyo would be communicating with Washington about the National Space Policy in the upcoming months. Scheduled to start in 2022 and finished in 2026, the Lunar Gateway is considered one of the biggest steps in the journey to the moon and back.
Helene Elliott is the senior reporter for News Raise. She covers Science news. She also has a keen interest in photojournalism. Helene holds a nomination for the prestigious Red Smith Award. She is married to author Dennis D’Agostino, a former publicist with the New York Mets.
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