On Thursday, during U.S. President’s trip to Tokyo, a special collaboration goal to make a moon landing by a Japanese astronaut became public, according to close sources.
The announcement, which will be made by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Vice President Joe Biden as an element of the Artemis project, is a multi-national effort led by the United States to advance research on the moon and ultimately send astronauts to Mars.
According to sources, the document, which will be released following the leaders’ conference on Monday, will also include a proposal to sign a pact by 2023 to expand the cooperation between countries in space exploration for the next couple of years.
Two governments have been working on arrangements to define this agreement as a fact sheet laying out the bilateral relationship, sources told.
A New Space Station On The Moon
The new Artemis is a NASA initiative and a sequel to the Apollo. The plan will comprise the construction of a small space station called Gateway, which will orbit the moon with homes and power generation facilities and an orbiter on the moon’s surface.
Both countries are trying to confirm with an official statement that will be public simultaneously with the fact that the Japanese crew will be part of the spaceship’s crew.
In 2019, Japan wanted to join the project and aim to be the second nation to launch an astronaut on the moon. Being promoted from Europe, Japan plans to move supplies on crewless supply vessels as part of the plan.
“We want to see a lunar landing by a Japanese astronaut during the second portion of the 2020s”. Kishida told a panel discussion of the government’s space development strategies in December.
The trip, from Sunday to Tuesday, was Biden’s first trip since he became a president; the president might consider visiting a space facility in Tokyo, diplomatic sources have stated.
The United States has intensified its rivalry in the face of China and Russia about high-tech and space that are increasingly significant in the economic and military areas.
Source: Kyodo
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