The Great Martian Traffic Jam

Kathy Miles writes "Not one, but three space agencies are lining up for Mars launches for June this year. The ESA (European Space Agency) is planning to launch their Mars Express in June for a December landing. NASA has two Mars landers almost ready to go, having fixed a few last minute problems and Japan is launching a Mars Orbiter called Nozomi. The two NASA rovers should arrive in January. Everyone wants to launch around June because Mars will not only be at opposition that month, but nearing a close approach to Earth in August when Mars will be closer to Earth than its been in hundreds of years."

Dammit!

[wowbagger]

To: High command
From: Special agent ngrrt
Re: Human launches toward our home

DAMMIT!

Do you have any IDEA how hard it is going to be for us to make that many launch failures look like accidents?

One or two we can make look like math errors, but this is going to strain even the human's credulity

Sincerely,

ngrrt

cigars

[BortQ]

I am coming back from Mars, where they drive in fancy cars
and the King he is okay, he is coming home today
I am coming back from Mars, where there are no cheap cigars
and Elvis has said, that I could be just like they are

Aqua - 'Coming Back From Mars' - A great song

It's a race!

[L. VeGas]

If Americans get there first, it will be stripmined and claimed as sovereign territory.

If Japanese get there first, we'll get to see a lot of cool Martian Anime.

If Europeans get there first, then hell will freeze over.

Re:It's a race!

[M1FCJ]

"If Japanese get there first, we'll get to see a lot of cool Martian Anime."

Go Nadesico go!

A Second Nozomi?

[CheshireCatCO]

Call me confused, but I thought Nozomi was already well en route to Mars, having launched in 1998. (It's taking longer than intended to get there due to some technical difficulty; I think they blew too much propellant early on, but don't quote me on that.) I haven't found anything on a second Nozomi mission with Google. Anyone know anything about this new mission?

Re:A Second Nozomi?

[elakazal]

I'm 99% sure this is the same thing. The projected arrival date after its difficulties in 1998 was 2004, if I recall, so it seems unlikely they'd launch another one right before the first one arrives...one would think you'd at least want to wait and see if it works, at this point.

Re:A Second Nozomi?

[CheshireCatCO]

That's what I would have thought. But the article very distinctly says "launch" in reference to Nozomi. It also talks about June. (The arrival of the Nozomi-in-transit is December of this year. Which means the fun won't really begin until 2004.)

Which isn't to say that they might not launch a new one in June, I suppose. NASA didn't wait for Voyager 1 to return science data before launching Voyager 2. (Come to think of it, they didn't wait to LAUNCH Voyager 1 before launching Voyager 2. Ah, the subtlt

The Great Race to Mars, or Bust - the Movie

[ralphclark]

The contestants motivated by a substantial cash prize ... with Tony Curtis [imdb.com] as the intrepid hero, Susan Hampshire [imdb.com] as the love interest, Eric Sykes [imdb.com] (and/or Dud [imdb.com] and Pete [imdb.com]) as the clumsy no-hopers and Terry-Thomas [imdb.com] the upper-class scheming rotter. etc.

Well it'd be a lot more fun that way...

DSN priorities

[Anonymous Coward]

It is interesting that this is more than a traffic jam, it is also a communication jam. To my knowledge, all these probes will be tracked by DSN and some of these probes will relay their messages using MGS. Originally these probes were to land with longer periods of time between landings.Delays and other problems created this massive traffic jam and you bet NASA wil favour their own probes. Mitra knows if we will loose any scientific data because of this massive traffic jam. It will be almost impossible to

Re:DSN priorities

[rk]

The Mars Odyssey Orbiter will also be used as a lander/rover communications relay. The ESA is setting up their own ground stations to stem the tide, relying on the DSN as backup during critical maneuvers. DSN will be busy, but that's nothing new, really.