The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) acknowledged at a press conference on Friday that one of its research teams, led by Satoshi Furukawa, had “invented” and “altered large amounts of data linked to the mental health of participants in an experiment simulating life on the International Space Station (ISS).
JAXA Vice President Hiroshi Sasaki said Mr Furukawa was partly responsible for the team’s fraudulent actions while he oversaw it.
Although the astronaut faces disciplinary action, changes to Mr. Furukawa’s planned mission to the ISS next year have not been considered, Mr. Sasaki said.
“The sloppy management of the experiment damaged the credibility of our research data and the scientific value of the study as a whole,” Sasaki said, apologizing for the team’s fraudulent actions. .
This experiment was supposed to monitor and assess the mental health and stress levels of eight people confined to closed quarters for about two weeks, replicating living conditions on the space station.