, AM is a Japanese scientist, a former NASDA 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, succeedin ...

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 n ...

missions. He is the first Japanese astronaut who was part of an official Japanese space program. The first Japanese person in space, Toyohiro Akiyama, was a journalist who was trained in the Soviet Union.

Biography

Born in Yoichi, Hokkaidō, Japan, Mohri earned both a BSc and MSc degree in chemistry from Hokkaido University in respectively 1970 and 1972, and a

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * '' Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. al ...

degree in chemistry from Flinders University in

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 ...

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

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 ...

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

faculty Faculty may refer to: * Faculty (academic staff), the academic staff of a university (North American usage) * Faculty (division) A faculty is a division within a university or college comprising one subject area or a group of related subject ...

of Hokkaido University, where he worked on nuclear fusion-related projects. Mohri was selected by the National Space Development Agency of Japan (now JAXA) to train as a payload specialist for a Japanese materials science payload. He flew his first space mission aboard

STS-47 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 ...

in 1992 as chief payload specialist for Spacelab-J. Mohri subsequently made another trip into space as part of mission STS-99 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 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 Go ...

(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

File:Astronaut-Mamoru-Mohri-STS-99-Shuttle-14 Feb-2000.png, Astronaut Mamoru Mohri on Endeavour's flight deck during STS-99 Flight Day 4 of the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (14 February 2000) File:STS-47 crew.jpg,

Endeavour, crew members with Mamoru Mohri File:STS-47 crew in SLJ make notes during shift changeover.jpg,

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