Nozomi
Nozomi (PLANET-B)
Mission Descriptions
NOZOMI (PLANET-B) was Japan's first Mars explorer launched on July 4, 1998. Its main mission was to research the Martian upper atmosphere by focusing on the interaction with solar wind. Due to trouble, the trajectory to Mars was drastically changed en route, it approached Mars closely in December 2003, four years behind the original plan. However, due to frequent problems, the systems required to enter orbit around Mars did not work. Despite every possible effort to restore the functions, we had to abandon the insertion of the explorer into orbit around Mars on December 9, 2003. NOZOMI became an artificial planet that flies forever in orbit around the Sun near that of Mars.
Refereneces
Mission overview paper
Instrument paper
- Oyama, K. et al. (1999) Earth, Planets and Space - Electron temperature probe onboard Japan's Mars orbiter
- Ihara, A. et al. (2002) Astroparticle Physics - Electron and ion spectrometer onboard the Nozomi spacecraft and its initial results in interplanetary space
- Sasaki, S. et al. (2002) Advances in Space Research - Observation of interplanetary and interstellar dust particles by Mars Dust Counter (MDC) on board NOZOMI
- Sasaki, S. (1999) Advances in Space Research - Dust ring/torus around Mars, waiting for detection by NOZOMI
- Taguchi, M. et al. (2000) Earth, Planets and Space - Ultraviolet imaging spectrometer (UVS) experiment on board the NOZOMI spacecraft: Instrumentation and initial results
- Nakagawa, T. et al. (2002) Advances in Space Research - NOZOMI observation of the interplanetary magnetic field in 1998