Nozomi (spacecraft)
Nozomi (spacecraft)
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Nozomi (spacecraft)

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Nozomi (spacecraft)

Nozomi (Japanese: のぞみ; lit. "Wish" or "Hope", and known before launch as Planet-B) was a Japanese Mars orbiter that failed to reach Mars due to electrical failure. It was constructed by the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, University of Tokyo and launched on July 4, 1998, at 03:12 JST (July 3, 1998, at 18:12 UTC) with an on-orbit dry mass of 258 kg and 282 kg of propellant.[citation needed] The Nozomi mission was terminated on December 31, 2003.[citation needed]

Nozomi was designed to study the upper Martian atmosphere and its interaction with the solar wind and to develop technologies for use in future planetary missions. Specifically, instruments on the spacecraft were to measure the structure, composition and dynamics of the ionosphere, aeronomy effects of the solar wind, the escape of atmospheric constituents, the intrinsic magnetic field, the penetration of the solar-wind magnetic field, the structure of the magnetosphere, and dust in the upper atmosphere and in orbit around Mars. The mission would have also returned images of Mars's surface.[citation needed]

After launch on the third M-V launch vehicle, Nozomi was put into an elliptical geocentric parking orbit with a perigee of 340 km and an apogee of 400,000 km.[citation needed]

The spacecraft used a lunar swingby on September 24, 1998, and another on December 18, 1998, to increase the apogee of its orbit.

It flew by Earth on December 20, 1998, at a perigee of about 1000 km. The gravitational assist from the flyby coupled with a 7 minute burn of the bipropellant rocket put Nozomi into an escape trajectory towards Mars. It was scheduled to arrive at Mars on October 11, 1999, at 7:45:14 UT, but a malfunctioning valve during the Earth swingby resulted in a loss of fuel and left the spacecraft with insufficient acceleration to reach its planned trajectory. Two course correction burns on December 21 used more propellant than planned, leaving the spacecraft short of fuel.

The new plan was for Nozomi to remain in heliocentric orbit for an additional four years, including two Earth flybys in December 2002 and June 2003, and encounter Mars at a slower relative velocity in December 2003, or January 1, 2004.

On April 21, 2002, as Nozomi was approaching Earth for the gravity assist maneuver, powerful solar flares damaged the spacecraft's onboard communications and power systems. An electrical short occurred in a power cell used to control the attitude control heating system, allowing the hydrazine fuel to freeze. The fuel thawed out as the craft approached Earth and maneuvers to put the craft on the correct trajectory for its Earth flyby were successful.[citation needed]

Another Earth flyby within 11,000 km occurred on June 19, 2003. The fuel had completely thawed out for this maneuver because of the spacecraft's proximity to the Sun. However, on December 9, 2003, efforts to orient the craft to prepare it for a December 14, 2003, main thruster orbital insertion burn failed[clarification needed], and efforts to save the mission were abandoned. The small thrusters were fired on December 9, moving the closest approach distance to 1,000 km so that the probe would not inadvertently impact on Mars and possibly contaminate the planet with Earth bacteria, since the orbiter had not been intended to land and was therefore not properly sterilized.[citation needed]

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