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The agency hopes to use a domestically made space suit as part of the International Space Station project around 2010, when Japan plans to launch its first manned space laboratory, Kibo, for the ISS. It is seeking to expand its space exploration program and said in 2005 it would send its first astronauts into space and set up a base on the moon by 2025.

A space suit is primarily designed to protect astronauts from low temperatures, space radiation and meteoric stones during exploration outside the spacecraft. JAXA plans to reduce its weight by about 20 kg from the current 120 kg and wants to upgrade built-in life support mechanisms to allow continuous use of a suit up to a week. An upgraded space suit would involve heat resistance and anti-radiation technology, bulletproof materials and robot mechanisms.

The Japan Times Weekly: Dec. 31, 2005
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