According to Xinhua News Agency, Kyodo News Agency and other media reports, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) yesterday announced a researcher falsified experimental data incident, the head of the research team involved worked on the International Space Station. 25 JAXA agency director Hiroshi Sasaki apologized for the data falsification incident at a press conference.
According to the report, the team conducted an experiment from 2016 to 2017 to assess the psychological stress of eight adults in a simulated space habitat, which turned out to be experiment data falsified by two people just to make it appear that other researchers were involved in the assessment.
JAXA later found the experiment data to be faulty and launched an investigation in November 2017, discontinuing the experiment two years later. The two researchers involved explained that they were “too busy” to fully commit to the experiment.
It is worth mentioning that the team involved was led by Japanese astronaut Satoshi Furukawa. Although Furukawa should be partially responsible for the data falsification and accept the corresponding punishment, JAXA said he will still go to the International Space Station again next year as planned.
Satoshi Furukawa, 58, worked and lived on the ISS for 165 days in 2011 and is the third Japanese astronaut based on the ISS.
Furukawa is in charge of the implementation of the entire project, and directly related to the problem is the expert in psychological interviews. JAXA said it would “respond appropriately in the future in accordance with the procedures”.
Sasaki apologized, saying, “Lax data management and loose management of research not only undermine the reliability of research data, but also the scientific value of the entire study.” He noted regarding the reasons for the violation, “As an organization, there was a shallow understanding and inexperience of medical research. The opportunity to strive for self-regulation and improvement was missed.”
