Posted by tourdemars to Nozomi at December 3, 2003 12:00 PM

Space experts are growing anxious that Japan may contaminate Mars when its beleaguered probe Nozomi reaches the Red Planet with a slight chance of collision on Dec 14, years behind schedule and plagued by technical problems. They say there is a roughly 1% possibility of Nozomi, Japan's first Mars orbiter, impacting Mars due to malfunctions with its electrical system and numerous other woes.