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Japan's Mars Probe Makes Swing by Earth
By Associated Press
posted: 09:00 am ET
20 June 2003
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TOKYO (AP) -- A Japanese space probe plagued by technical problems has made its final flyby of the Earth and is on its way to Mars, space program officials said Friday TOKYO (AP) -- A Japanese space probe plagued by technical problems has made its final flyby of the Earth and is on its way to Mars, space program officials said Friday. The probe, named Nozomi, which means Hope, passed within 6,800 miles of the Earth in a manuever designed to use the planet's gravity to slingshot the probe toward Mars. Mission planners would not be able to determine whether the flyby, conducted just before midnight Thursday, was a success for about another week, according to a statement by the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science. Nozomi, launched in July 1998, is Japan's first attempt at interplanetary exploration. Its mission is to orbit Mars and gather data on its atmosphere and topography for up to two years. It was originally scheduled to reach its destination in October 1998, but an earlier swing past Earth failed to give it sufficient speed, and adjustments to make up for that burned more fuel than forecast, forcing a drastic retooling of its flight plan. 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 will begin trying to repair the electrical damage next month, according to Friday's statement. Nozomi is part of an international fleet of probes now on their way to Mars. If successful, it will arrive in late December or early January, about the same time as the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter and its British-built Beagle 2 lander. The United States is also sending two Mars rovers that are due to arrive about the same time.
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