TOKYO: Japan will solicit applications from its citizens to become astronauts for possible participation in the US-led international lunar exploration project, science minister Koichi Hagiuda said Friday.

The astronauts selected could be the first Japanese to land on the moon.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, will start accepting applications around autumn next year to recruit astronauts for the first time in 13 years.

Japan last hired new astronauts in 2008, when Kimiya Yui, 50, and two others were selected.

JAXA now plans to solicit applications for astronauts roughly once every five years.

The Artemis moon exploration project, in which Japan has declared it will join, seeks to build the Gateway, a manned space station, in lunar orbit through international cooperation. It aims to land US astronauts on the moon in 2024 to survey the lunar surface and conduct experiments for future expeditions to Mars.

In July, Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology signed a joint declaration with NASA on cooperation in moon exploration.

Japan will contribute technologies, such as batteries and environmental control systems, to the project. In return, the country is seeking opportunities to station Japanese astronauts on the Gateway and for them to land on the moon.

JAXA currently has seven astronauts, of whom three will reach the agency’s retirement age of 60 by 2025, when the moon exploration activities are expected to start in earnest. Only two are expected to remain in active service in 2030.

As astronaut training takes four or five years, Japan is moving to replenish its pool of astronauts in time for the beginning of full-scale activities around the moon.

JIJI Press