The Mars Exploration Family Portrait shows every dedicated spacecraft mission to Mars, and now includes India’s Mars Orbiter Mission and NASA’s MAVEN. The dates listed are for launch.
December 9th, 2003
Hope Lost, Japan Abandons Mars Probe
Japan abandoned its troubled mission to Mars on Tuesday after space officials failed in their final effort to put the Nozomi probe back on course to orbit the Red Planet. The probe, Japan’s first interplanetary explorer, had been traveling for five years toward Mars and would have reached the planet next week. But officials at JAXA, Japan’s space agency, said Nozomi was off target and that scientists gave up trying to salvage the mission after an attempt to fire the probe’s engines failed because it was short on fuel.
December 9th, 2003
Japanese fail to salvage Mars mission
Japan abandoned its troubled mission to Mars Tuesday, after space officials failed in their final effort to put the Nozomi probe back on course to orbit the Red Planet. The probe, Japan’s first interplanetary explorer, was set to end a five-year journey when it reached Mars next week. But officials at JAXA, Japan’s space agency, said Nozomi was off target and that they would try to fire its engines late Tuesday to save the mission. It would be their final attempt because the probe was short on fuel. JAXA spokesman Junichi Moriuma said the operation had failed, and that scientists had given up hope of salvaging the probe.
December 9th, 2003
Japanese Mars mission ‘abandoned’
Japan has given up on its first interplanetary space mission on the final leg of the journey to Mars. Officials have decided not to put the Nozomi space craft into orbit around the planet. Last-ditch attempts to fix an onboard electrical fault have failed, and the probe will be steered off into space.
December 8th, 2003
Canadian instrument could be lost in space The Toronto Star
The first Canadian scientific instrument to travel beyond earth’s orbit is in danger of becoming lost in space this week as it limps toward Mars on board a Japanese spacecraft. “It’s definitely a big disappointment; we’ve put a lot into this,” said Alain Berinstain, Mars project leader at the Canadian Space Agency. “But if you compare it to our Japanese colleagues, they have a lot more at stake here than we do.” Japan’s problem-plagued Nozomi orbiter is one of four spacecraft currently en route to the red planet.
December 8th, 2003
Japan Poised To Abandon Martian Probe Mission
Japan’s trouble-plagued first mission to Mars is set to be abandoned in the latest of a series of costly failures to hit the country’s space development programme, news reports and officials said Monday. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency will make a final attempt on Tuesday to remotely repair electronic circuitry on the Nozomi probe damaged by a solar flare last year, which caused the main engine to shut down, officials said.
December 3rd, 2003
Japan’s probe may contaminate Mars Japan Today
Space experts are growing anxious that Japan may contaminate Mars when its beleaguered probe Nozomi reaches the Red Planet with a slight chance of collision on Dec 14, years behind schedule and plagued by technical problems. They say there is a roughly 1% possibility of Nozomi, Japan’s first Mars orbiter, impacting Mars due to malfunctions with its electrical system and numerous other woes.
December 2nd, 2003
Japan’s new space agency struggles to regroup
Japan’s Mars probe is in trouble. Its weather satellites are breaking down. And its latest attempt to put a pair of spy satellites into orbit ended last weekend in a $92 million fireball. While rival China is basking in the glory of its first manned space flight, Japan’s new space agency is off to a decidedly inauspicious start.
December 1st, 2003
Japan’s Mars Probe in Trouble Again Discovery News
Japan’s high hopes of joining the science-fest at Mars next year are rapidly evaporating, with only a slim chance the country’s troubled Nozomi spacecraft will be able to brake for orbit. Engineers have just one more week to repair a damaged electrical system needed to warm fuel for Nozomi’s thrusters. If the thrusters aren’t fired, Nozomi will not be in position to go into orbit around Mars.
October 7th, 2003
Nozomi’s Swingby of Earth MarsToday.com
On June 19, the Mars explorer NOZOMI came close to Earth at a distance of approx. 11,000 km and implemented the earth swingby. This means that the “2nd swingby” in the NOZOMI’s new orbit (see Fig. 1) was accomplished and, accordingly, we succeeded in putting NOZOMI into the orbit that enables to arrive at Mars in mid-December of this year.