SPACEFLIGHT
Get Your Ass to Mars!

In August, Mars will be closer to the Earth than at any time in recorded history. No fewer than three space agencies are sending robotic spacecraft to intercept the Red Planet: Japan's ISAS launched it's Nozomi craft in '98, NASA is launching two rovers, and the European Space Agency is launching their Mars Express. Here's an overview of the invasion...

Japan's Nozomi (Hope)
ISAS (Institute of Space and Astronautical Science)
Launch Date: July 4, 1998

The arrival of Nozomi at Mars has been delayed four years from its originally scheduled rendezvous in 1999 in order to conserve fuel. The spacecraft used more propellant than planned in a course correction maneuver on December 21, 1998 after the December 20th Earth flyby left the craft with "insufficient acceleration". The spacecraft will continue in a heliocentric orbit until it encounters Mars in December of 2003.

Mission
The primary scientific objective of NOZOMI program is to study the Martian upper atmosphere with emphasis on its interaction with the solar wind.



Hardware
The 14 instruments carried on Nozomi are an imaging camera, neutral mass spectrometer, dust counter, thermal plasma analyzer, magnetometer, electron and ion spectrum analyzers, ion mass spectrograph, high energy particles experiment, VUV imaging spectrometer, sounder and plasma wave detector, LF wave analyzer, electron temperature probe, and a UV scanner. The total mass budgeted for the science instruments is 33 kg. Radio science experiments will also be possible using the existing radio equipment and an ultrastable oscillator. The total mass of Nozomi at launch including 282 kg of propellant was 540 kg. The mission is planned for one martian year (approximately two Earth years). An extended mission may allow operation of the mission for three to five years. The spacecraft will also point its cameras at the martian moons Phobos and Deimos. The total mission cost of Nozomi is estimated at $848 million.

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Nozomi
Home
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National Space Development Agency
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