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ISS Japan Space

Japanese Researchers Faked Data In Spaceflight Simulation (gizmodo.com) 41

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Gizmodo: The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) says a team of researchers fabricated the results of an experiment, led by one of its astronauts, that sought to simulate daily life on board the International Space Station (ISS). JAXA stated that it would subject astronaut Satoshi Furukawa to disciplinary action over data tampering, Japanese media reported. The experiment in question, conducted between 2016 and 2017, involved 40 participants who were confined to closed environments to simulate what astronauts experience during spaceflight.

The participants spent about two weeks at a facility in Tsukuba, a city northeast of Tokyo, after which time their stress levels and mental well-being were to be assessed by the overseeing researchers. Or at least, that was the plan. Instead, the two researchers responsible for conducting the interviews fabricated the data, compiling psychological assessments without actually having done the interviews and rewriting the diagnosis of the participants, according to NHK World-Japan. The researchers also claimed that three of them had conducted the interviews, when in fact it was just the two.

JAXA began investigating the results of the research in November 2020 upon noticing that something wasn't quite right with the data, and subsequently suspending the 190 million yen ($1.4 million) experiment. The researchers involved claimed that they were too busy to dedicate enough time towards the data gathering for the experiment, according to to JAXA vice president Hiroshi Sasaki and as reported in Kyoto News. The Japanese space agency will reprimand 58-year-old astronaut Furukawa, who was overseeing the experiment as project supervisor. However, since Furukawa was not personally involved in fabricating the data, his upcoming mission to the ISS in 2023 will not be affected. JAXA also stated that it would look into returning the grant it had received from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology for the experiment.

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Japanese Researchers Faked Data In Spaceflight Simulation

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  • Data fabrication (Score:3, Insightful)

    by The Evil Atheist ( 2484676 ) on Monday November 28, 2022 @10:39PM (#63087516)
    Holds us all back.
    • by Rosco P. Coltrane ( 209368 ) on Monday November 28, 2022 @11:25PM (#63087590)

      You can become POTUS, cause Brexit or invade Iraq on fabricated data though.

      • by Tablizer ( 95088 )

        > You can become POTUS, cause Brexit or invade Iraq on fabricated data though.

        Iraq war never happened! It was faked in the same Hollywood basement that did Apollo.

    • I was impressed with the fact that someone outside the research team was checking the numbers closely enough to notice that something was fishy and launch an investigation. I'd love to hear more about that story!

  • If they had been American they'd just name the researcher instead of saying "American researchers" faked the data. And yes data faking has occurred by "American" researchers. Here's a random sampling via google: https://ori.hhs.gov/case-summa... [hhs.gov] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/d... [cbsnews.com] https://www.bostonherald.com/2... [bostonherald.com]

    Nationalism sucks!

    • I don't see malice here.

      For one, JAXA may not have released the names of the guilty parties.

      Second, headlined are going to vary in their geographic specificity based on where the target audience lives. If The Washington Post reads "Florida Man Bites Dog" then the Daily Mail (UK) will read "American man bites dog" and the Gainesville Sun will read "Fort White man bites dog".

    • In reality people's behaviour has a lot to do with cultural features. It is kind of known that propensity for faking data does correlate with geographical origin of people. And, nationalism does not necessary suck. Patriotism is a form of it, and it has well defined benefits for individuals.
      • Nationalism, theoretically patriotic or otherwise, doesn't so much offer benefits to its adherents as drawbacks to the out group.

    • by khchung ( 462899 )

      If they had been American they'd just name the researcher instead of saying "American researchers" faked the data.

      You give American journalists and editors too much credit and assume they know how to translate Japanese names (probably in Kanji) to English.

      When the news was not spoon fed to them via press release in English, a poorly Google translated version is the best you can hope to see.

    • Likely has to do with Japanese defamation laws. You can be sued even if what you're saying is true:

      Under Article 230-1 of the Criminal Code of Japan: “(1) A person who defames another by alleging facts in public shall, regardless of whether such facts are true or false, be punished by imprisonment with or without work for not more than three (3) years or a fine of not more than 500,000 yen.”

  • Bad bad people. (Score:1, Flamebait)

    by ClueHammer ( 6261830 )
    The individuals, not the entire grouping as /. wants to infer with their racist choice of topic
  • Rigged demo (Score:5, Interesting)

    by jwhyche ( 6192 ) on Monday November 28, 2022 @10:45PM (#63087528) Homepage

    Any sufficiently advanced technology, in this case data, is indistinguishable from a rigged demo.

  • Then what is the point of the experiment? Burning up grant money?
    • They were probably busy writing the grant money request. Which, as is well know, is all about a research already successfully completed pretending to be a future project, as a means to fund the future project. So they probably needed the data and conclusions now to avoid missing a deadline, didn't have time to actually gather it, and faked it.

      This is the current state of widespread academic BSing. They error was doing it with something someone actually cared about.

      • by habig ( 12787 )

        They were probably busy writing the grant money request. Which, as is well know, is all about a research already successfully completed pretending to be a future project, as a means to fund the future project. So they probably needed the data and conclusions now to avoid missing a deadline, didn't have time to actually gather it, and faked it.

        This is the current state of widespread academic BSing. They error was doing it with something someone actually cared about.

        Citation? This post is right up there with all the widespread fraud that obviously happened in the 2020 election, which was obviously stolen by krakens.

        Spewing random accusations is easy and sounds good. Coming up with reality-based evidence turns out to be hard. My own anecdotal evidence: The peer review publication and grant awarding process in my field (particle astrophysics) seems to work as intended. That's good, because my colleagues and I spend a lot of time trying to do it right. Must be that w

        • Citation?

          I tried locating the article I had read a while ago providing more details, but I couldn't. Maybe down the line I can provide the link. Until then I'll make some other considerations:

          The peer review publication and grant awarding process in my field (particle astrophysics) seems to work as intended.

          It does, though the intention is the issue I'm referring to. If what I read about it is accurate, the process goes more or less this way for the vast majority of granted research: grants are generally awarded to small incremental research within well-established research programs, to those who already got grants due to doing sm

  • What is it with these closed-loop simulations and cheating?

    https://archive.seattletimes.c... [seattletimes.com]

    At least the actual ISS is constrained by reality.

    • Two weeks, really? I'm sure even the JMSDF submarine force has longer patrols than that! Just one of their submarines has a complement of 65-70 crew, crammed together in a tube measuring about 9m x 82m that is already packed pretty full with pipes, machinery, weapons, and structure. And they have 22 subs to pick from.
  • Fake data from a pointless study. Just wondering, how did they get zero gravity?

  • To be honest, I don't know how and why to falsify simulation studies given that they are done by artificial intelligence. As for me it is better and easier to provide all the data that were obtained to simplify the next workers or researchers. When I wrote an essay on my findings on AI, in addition to taking examples of work from https://gradesfixer.com/free-essay-examples/artificial-intelligence/ [gradesfixer.com] I also attached my own shortcomings as thoughts on the subject. Thus, I add new data to my work and make it mo

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