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Space Science

Nozomi Abandoned by Japan Space Agency 29

Posted by michael from the then-there-were-three dept.
rufey writes "Space.com is reporting that officials at JAXA, Japan's space agency, were unable to fix the problems plaguing Nozomi and have therefore abandoned all efforts to get it to orbit Mars. The main problem is lack of fuel. Instead of surveying Mars, JAXA is planning on using the probe, as it orbits the Sun, for other things such as solar activity. This is just one of four Mars probes that are scheduled to arrive at Mars in the next 60 days."
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Nozomi Abandoned by Japan Space Agency More

Nozomi Abandoned by Japan Space Agency

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  • Them sneaky Martian evil-doers are getting more tricksey in their attacks. I tip my hat to them. Well-done!
  • how do soooooo many people get jobs in aerospace, working in big old science departments funding by big old governments which send probes to venus and saturn, probes to the moons of jupiter and past pluto, probes to fast-moving comets, but they can't put a damn thing on surface or orbit of mars and the one time they did it was all screwed up? what the hell is the deal with mars?
    are scientists throwing our money away on purpose just to have laughs over a nerdy gag that 'mars has little green men and huge mon

    • Re:iq/sanity tests for expenditure 500mil please (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      That one NASA sent in the 70's worked fine. Viking was it?

      It that classic surface picture that looks strikingly like the red deserts of Arizona.

      "ooh ooh is he theorizing??"
    • The Martians are sabotaging the probes, of course!
      • see how easy it is to get into the 'gag'? 'hehehe, and then when it's 144,000 miles from objective, hehehe, we push the button and made it explode, kookoo! haha!'

        'yeah heh people will think there's something going on on mars, this is way more exciting than people thinking it's boring and we're useless.'

    • Re:iq/sanity tests for expenditure 500mil please (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Red Rocket ( 473003 ) on Tuesday December 09, 2003 @07:44PM (#7675356)

      ...but they can't put a damn thing on surface or orbit of mars and the one time they did it was all screwed up?

      Exactly how many craft have you landed on Mars, screwed up or otherwise? If you think it's so easy why don't you do it yourself?

      It's easy to be a critic and bash scientists and governments but it's a whole lot harder to actually design, plan, and execute these missions. These people are trying to do something important and extremely difficult. They need support, not armchair rocket scientists.
      • I haven't put anything on the surface of Mars, but neither have I spent several million dollars to discover that feet are not meters.

        • ...but neither have I spent several million dollars to discover that feet are not meters.

          Neither has anyone else. What's your point? I'm pretty sure most scientists (and laypeople for that matter) already knew that feet are not meters. I don't think anyone spent much money researching that. A mission to Mars was foiled by a mistake involving mismatched measurement units, but equating that to spending money to "discover that feet are not meters" is just hyperbole. Stop being a troll.
          • Ok, I'll bite.

            When you start compromising on testing, checking, and rechecking your information, then you are indeed paying money to discover things that could have been determined with much less money, and without compromising the mission. Since the only thing they learned from that particular mission was that they had made that mistake, then I feel entirely justified in making the claim that they paid to learn the difference between SI and metric.

            Let me restate that Socratically: they probably won't

        • it's like some crazy race this time. i think this is where the japanese probe fires the retros and stands still along the 'track', waiting for the other probs to pass. as they do, it will break FCC space-probe-marathon rules and fry their circuits with EMP, microwaves, and lasers. when all the probes crash into mars, the japanese probe will fire rockets again for mars and send the song 'speed racer (dance remix)' back to earth on all FM radio frequencies.
      • i'm saying that projects nasa has achieved so far have been more difficult than this one, involving more advanced mathmatics (landing on a not-so-distant surface vs. predicting the results of a series of gravity 'slingshot' trajectories,) and fewer attempts, and how suddenly getting near mars is the impossible project for our entire space-exploring race which has been extremely successful so far in all interplanetary missions (again, sans mars.)
    • Mars probes are frequently from newer teams/agencies than others. They aren't as overengineered (shorter flight time). In the US case, they're often part of the "faster cheaper better" (pick any two) program.

      Basically, lots of secondary issues.

  • It has shamed its ancestors.. (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    and must kill itself to save face.

  • Mars curse claims another probe (Score:3, Informative)

    by bandy ( 99800 ) <andrew.beals+slashdot@gmail.com> on Tuesday December 09, 2003 @06:10PM (#7674296) Homepage Journal
    One down, a few more to go:
    • January 2004: two US rovers
    • EASA's Mars Express arrives in about 15 days with British Beagle 2 due to land in 14-15 days

  • my guess is that he is "really really angry!"

    I vote we send Bugs Bunny there to show him who his momma is!

  • That is very sad, but... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by dnahelix ( 598670 ) <slashdotispieceofshit@shithome.com> on Tuesday December 09, 2003 @07:25PM (#7675146)
    I am personally disheartened at this. I was rooting for the Japanese to have a successful Mars mission.
    I am glad to see that they can possibly still use it for solar monitoring. As of now, if SOHO goes down, we have no solar monitoring from space.
    Good luck to Japan in finding a use for NOZOMI.
  • ... an attempt to fire the probe's engines failed because it was short on fuel.
    They just need to look for the star [texaco.com]
  • The mission has failed, but they're still salvaging something by having it continue to collect data.

  • I'm not exactly sure what else the Japanese expect to be able to observe with a probe that is low on manuvering fuel? Are they going to try for an asteroid in the belt? See if they can swing around the belt for a while? I just hope they don't aim it for Jupiter. After the last probe the Jovians might be upset.
    • The text on the top of this very page says (in simplified terms because apparently it's too complex as written) that as the probe orbits the sun (since it missed Mars), perhaps they can point it at sun a take a few readings. Nowhere does it say anything about heading off to the asteroid belt!
  • Perhaps this is a clear signal that Japan should give up on building rockets and focus on what they're good at - constructing giant robots.
  • Yep, you heard me, it's a conspiracy to keep us from knowing too much. I want to make a bet that only one, if that, will make it to the surface.

  • I'm glad to see that Nozomi will be useful, albeit not in the capacity for which it was originally designed. I've no doubt the data returned from its solar activity monitoring missions will prove very valuable. Aptly named craft, indeed.

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