Japan’s space agency JAXA said a research team has manipulated data from a life-simulating experiment on the International Space Station. The team is led by astronaut Satoshi Furukawa.
Although there will be no change to Furukawa’s scheduled flight to the International Space Station next year, JAXA has announced that the astronaut will be appropriately sanctioned. According to the agency, Furukawa had partial responsibility for the experiment as he held a supervisory role.
Space agency experiment to see stress levels
According to the Japanese Space Agency, the team has a large amount of data on the mental health of the participants in the experiment Fake and modified.
The experiment took 40 people who lived in a closed environment at a facility in Tsukuba for about two weeks between 2016 and 2017 to measure their stress levels and psychological well-being.
Two of the researchers conducting interviews to determine the mental state of the participants falsified the data and made it appear as if other researchers had also participated.
Researchers justify manipulation with a lot of work
According to JAXA, the two researchers testified that they manipulated the data because they were too busy to devote themselves to research.
In November 2017, the space agency began investigating the project after discovering irregularities in the analysis of experimental data, and suspended the project in November 2019.
JAXA said it will take appropriate measures to repay the approximately 96 million yen ($700,000) the project received from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.