Posted by tourdemars to Interplanetary Internet at November 29, 2003 12:00 PM

Experts are growing anxious that Japan's beleaguered space probe Nozomi may contaminate Mars if it happens to collide with the Red Planet, possibly on Dec. 14. They say there is a roughly 1 percent possibility that the Nozomi, Japan's first orbiter of Mars, will impact the planet due to malfunctions with its electrical system and numerous other factors.