Japan’s Nozomi Mars Mission Faces Critical Dec. 2 Deadline

Posted by tourdemars to Interplanetary Internet at November 21, 2003 12:00 PM

Mission planners for Japan’s Mars-bound Nozomi spacecraft have until Dec. 2 to bypass a short on the probe’s electrical system so it can conduct critical orbit correction maneuvers Dec. 9. If the electrical problem is not repaired, Nozomi, Japan’s first interplanetary mission, will almost certainly fly past Mars, probably passing the red planet at an altitude of 894 kilometers. “We are in the final stages of our operation to recover the situation,” Yasunori Matogawa, director of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA’s) Kagoshima Launch Center, told Space News in a Nov. 21 telephone interview.