, AM is a Japanese scientist, a former

NASDA The , or NASDA, was a Japanese national space agency established on October 1, 1969 under the National Space Development Agency Law only for peaceful purposes. Based on the Space Development Program enacted by the Minister of Education, Culture, ...

astronaut, and a veteran of two

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program na ...

missions. He is the first Japanese astronaut who was part of an official Japanese space program. The first Japanese person in space,

Toyohiro Akiyama is a retired Japanese TV journalist and professor at Kyoto University of Art and Design. In December 1990, he spent seven days aboard the Mir space station. He became the first person of Japanese nationality to fly in space, and his space mi ...

, was a journalist who was trained in the Soviet Union.

Biography

Born in

Yoichi, Hokkaidō is a town located in the Shiribeshi Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan. Demographics As of September 2018, the population of Yoichi has dropped to 18,993 people, a drop of 10% over less than a decade. The density is 160 persons per km². The total a ...

, Japan, Mohri earned both a

BSc A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...

and MSc degree in chemistry from

Hokkaido University , or , is a Japanese national university in Sapporo, Hokkaido. It was the fifth Imperial University in Japan, which were established to be the nation's finest institutions of higher education or research. Hokkaido University is considered ...

in respectively 1970 and 1972, and a PhD degree in chemistry from

Flinders University Flinders University is a public research university based in Adelaide, South Australia, with a footprint extending across 11 locations in South Australia and the Northern Territory. Founded in 1966, it was named in honour of British navigator ...

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

, in 1976. Most of Mohri's work has been in the field of

materials Material is a substance or mixture of substances that constitutes an object. Materials can be pure or impure, living or non-living matter. Materials can be classified on the basis of their physical and chemical properties, or on their geologic ...

and

vacuum A vacuum is a space devoid of matter. The word is derived from the Latin adjective ''vacuus'' for "vacant" or "void". An approximation to such vacuum is a region with a gaseous pressure much less than atmospheric pressure. Physicists often dis ...

science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

s. From 1975 to 1985, Mohri was a member of the

nuclear engineering Nuclear engineering is the branch of engineering concerned with the application of breaking down atomic nuclei ( fission) or of combining atomic nuclei (fusion), or with the application of other sub-atomic processes based on the principles of n ...

faculty of Hokkaido University, where he worked on

nuclear fusion Nuclear fusion is a reaction in which two or more atomic nuclei are combined to form one or more different atomic nuclei and subatomic particles ( neutrons or protons). The difference in mass between the reactants and products is manifest ...

-related projects. Mohri was selected by the National Space Development Agency of Japan (now

JAXA The is the Japanese national air and space agency. Through the merger of three previously independent organizations, JAXA was formed on 1 October 2003. JAXA is responsible for research, technology development and launch of satellites into orb ...

) to train as a payload specialist for a Japanese materials science payload. He flew his first space mission aboard STS-47 in 1992 as chief payload specialist for

Spacelab-J STS-47 was the 50th NASA Space Shuttle mission of the program, as well as the second mission of the Space Shuttle ''Endeavour''. The mission mainly involved conducting experiments in life and material sciences inside Spacelab-J, a collaborati ...

. Mohri subsequently made another trip into space as part of mission

STS-99 STS-99 was a Space Shuttle mission using ''Endeavour'', that launched on 11 February 2000 from Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The primary objective of the mission was the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) project. This was also the last s ...

in 2000. As of 2001, Mohri is the Chief Executive Director Emeritus for the

Miraikan The , simply known as the , is a museum created by Japan's Science and Technology Agency. It was opened in 2001. It is situated in a purpose-built building in the Odaiba District of Tokyo. It can be reached by the Yurikamome driverless fully au ...

, the

National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation The , simply known as the , is a museum created by Japan's Science and Technology Agency. It was opened in 2001. It is situated in a purpose-built building in the Odaiba District of Tokyo. It can be reached by the Yurikamome driverless fully au ...

in Tokyo.

Honours

On 16 March 2006 Mohri was appointed an Honorary Member of the

Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Gove ...

(AM), “for service to Australia-Japan education and science relations.”It's an Honour
. Itsanhonour.gov.au (2006-03-16). Retrieved on 2011-06-24.

Gallery

File:STS-47 Mamoru Mohri-1992.webm, Mamoru Mohri being fitted for a spacesuit and conducing an experiment in space aboard STS-47 File:Astronaut-Mamoru-Mohri-STS-99-Shuttle-14 Feb-2000.png, Astronaut Mamoru Mohri on Endeavour's flight deck during

Flight Day 4 of the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (14 February 2000) File:STS-47 crew.jpg, STS-47 Endeavour, crew members with Mamoru Mohri File:STS-47 crew in SLJ make notes during shift changeover.jpg, STS-47 crew in SLJ make notes during shift changeover

External links

*
Spacefacts biography of Mamoru Mohri

References

1948 births Living people Flinders University alumni Hokkaido University alumni Japanese astronauts People from Yoichi, Hokkaido Honorary Members of the Order of Australia Hokkaido University faculty Tokyo Institute of Technology faculty Space Shuttle program astronauts {{astronaut-stub