Japanese astronaut returns
to earth with stories
from space
Japanese astronaut Mamoru Mohri regaled a captive audience at AIT with stories from space when he visited the campus on 4 September. Dr. Mohri presented a lecture and a video documentary of his second space voyage. Dr. Mohri was one of six astronauts on the STS-99 NASA space shuttle mission that undertook an 11-day radar topographic mission of the earth in September 1999.
'Space food - all of 200 items - from a vast menu is good,' boasts Dr. Mohri, 'and the sleeping arrangements are easy, a fortunate circumstance for astronatus,' he adds, 'as we work in 12-hour shifts everyday. Simply close your eyes,' he says jokingly, 'your position - horizontal or vertical - hardly matters. It takes a very short time - all of eight minutes - to reach space,' he hastens to add, seemingly giving the impression that space voyage is 'no big deal'.
As an astronaut Dr. Mohri, seen above with AIT President, Prof. Jean-Louis Armand, he has the enviable position of having seen the earth from space. Asked about the view of Japan from space, he said, 'Every part of the earth is beautiful no matter which country'. From space, Dr. Mohri has viewed the pyramids of Egypt, Mt. Everest, to name a few places. These views and several thousand others are captured in some 8000 exposures taken by the STS-99 NASA space shuttle team.
'The earth environment is vital to our survival,' emphasizes Dr. Mohri, citing the importance of earth observation using radar topographic technology.
Dr. Mohri's career as an astronaut with Japan's National Space and Development Agency (NASDA) is the fulfilment of a dream that he first had as a 14-year old boy. A nuclear engineer by training, Dr. Mohri worked as a scientist for 30 years before he finally became an astronaut. His first space shuttle mission was in September 1992.
Dr. Mohri, center, front row, toured the laboratories of the Asian Center for Research on Remote Sensing (ACRoRS). With him are Dr. Michiro Kusanagi and Dr. Kiyoshi Honda, Coordinator of AIT's Space Technology Applications and Research Program. In the back row are, from left: Mr. Nobuyuki Teraoka of the Science Technology Agency of Japan and JICA Policy Adviser to the National Science and Technology Development Agency of Thailand, and Mr. Tadahiko Inada, Assistant Executive Director of the Earth Observation Systems, the National Space Development Agency of Japan.