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Japan's First Mars Probe in Doubt

Posted on: Tuesday, 17 June 2003, 06:00 CDT

By ERIC TALMADGE

TOKYO (AP) -- Five years late, low on fuel and with its heating system on the blink, Japan's first Mars-bound probe, the $88 million Nozomi, or "Hope," appears to be in serious trouble.

Mission controllers trying to keep the mission alive face a major test Thursday, when Nozomi is scheduled to make its second swingby of Earth. The maneuver is intended to use the Earth's gravity as a slingshot to send the probe on its final trajectory to Mars.

Experts admit the probe is limping.

"We are doing everything we can, but we don't know whether we will be able to succeed," Osamu Shimamoto, of the Education Ministry's Space Policy Division, said Tuesday. "We are praying that this swingby will work."

A failure for the mission, one of several from around the world now aimed at Mars, would be a great disappointment for Japan's space program, which has been struggling with cost overruns and an apathetic public.

If Nozomi reaches the planet at all, it will likely arrive at about the same time as the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter and its British-built Beagle 2 lander, and two U.S. Mars rovers.

According to Shimamoto, the Nozomi is forecast to reach Mars between late December 2003 and early January 2004.

Two other U.S. satellites are already in Mars orbit.

Nozomi, Japan's first mission to another planet, was launched from a pad in Kagoshima, southwestern Japan, on July 4, 1998, to gather data on the atmosphere and topography of Mars.

But it soon ran into trouble.

Though originally scheduled to arrive at Mars in October 1998, its first swingby of Earth failed to give it sufficient speed. Mission controllers then had to adjust its course to save fuel, resulting in the five-year delay.

In April last year, a burst of solar flares damaged Nozomi's heating system and cut off most communication with the probe. The computer control systems on the probe were intact, however, allowing engineers on Earth to repair the spacecraft.

Experts now fear that even if this week's swingby is successful, the probe may not be able to pull off a maneuver required to put it into Mars orbit if its heating system isn't fixed.

Yasunori Matokawa, director of the Kagoshima Space Center, where the mission was launched, said controllers expect Thursday's swingby to be a success.

"I don't think there will be a problem," he said. "We've done all we can and now we just have to see what happens."

But he said the larger problem will be fixing the shorted out heating system and other damage caused by the April solar flare-up. He said controllers will try to do that in mid-July.

Nozomi's troubles contrast sharply with several recent successes marked by Japan in space.

Last month, Japan launched a probe designed to bring back surface samples from an asteroid, a feat that has never before been accomplished. In March, it launched its first spy satellites, primarily because of concerns over neighboring North Korea's development of nuclear weapons and long-range missiles.

But this country's sagging economy has aggravated concerns about cost overruns and bureaucratic waste, prompting Japan to plan a major overhaul of its space program this fall.

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On the Net:

Nozomi Mission

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