Four Japanese schools have been selected to participate in an education program to be carried out by astronaut Mamoru Mori during his second mission aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavor, scheduled to be launched in October 1999, the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA) announced.

The schools participating in the project, called EarthKAM (Earth Knowledge Acquired by Middle School Students), are Ino Middle School in the town of Ino, Kochi Prefecture; Meikei Gakuen Middle School in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture; Yamamuro Middle School in Toyama, Toyama Prefecture; and Kansai Soka Middle and High School in Katano, Osaka Prefecture.

Mori, who became the first Japanese astronaut to travel in space when he flew on Endeavor in September 1992 as a payload specialist, will ride the Endeavor again as a mission specialist during its 11-day flight between September 16 and 28. The aim of the mission is to obtain precise Earth surface data.

During his mission in space, Mori will take photographs with a digital camera aboard the Space Shuttle and transmit the images to the participating schools via the Internet. The photographs will then be examined by the students to deepen their understanding of environmental issues.

Under the project, the schools will tell Mori what images they want every day in keeping with the focus of each day's lesson. The requests may be for photographs of a river delta, forests threatened with environmental destruction, or even historical monuments like the Great Wall of China.

The participating schools will be asked to examine weather conditions before sending their requests because cloud cover could prevent Mori from taking photographs of certain regions.

Photo: Mori in training for his second space shot. (©NASDA)