Nozomi mission to Mars fails/Solar storm threatens U.Calgary-ledMars probe (Forwarded)

Canadian Space Agenccy

NOZOMI MISSION TO MARS FAILS

Longueuil, Quebec, December 9, 2003 -- The Canadian Space Agency
(CSA) today confirmed that the Japanese satellite Nozomi has been
rerouted away from Mars by JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration
Agency. Crucial orbit insertion maneuvers were impossible to achieve
because of defective equipment onboard and the mission has been
canceled. Nozomi will now follow a harmless large elliptic solar orbit.

Canada was a partner in this international Mars mission with a
$5 million Canadian-built scientific instrument onboard -- the
Thermal Plasma Analyser (TPA). The TPA was designed to analyse
the Martian atmosphere to better understand its origin and
composition. The University of Calgary was leading the TPA
research team and Canadian firms COM DEV International
(Cambridge, Ont.), Pakwa Engineering (Saskatoon, Sask.), CAL Corp.
(Ottawa, Ont.) and CompAS Electronics (Kanata, Ont.) were
involved in the design and building of the instrument.

"This is not a total loss for the Canadian Space Program", said Alain
Berinstain, CSA's acting Director of Planetary Exploration and Space
Astronomy. TPA has positioned Canada as a preferred supplier of
state-of-the-art science and technology. It has opened doors to
current and future collaborations with Japan and with other
countries involved in the exploration of the solar system. Our
thoughts are with our colleagues and friends from Japan and we
look forward to working with them again in the future."

In April 2002, on its way to Mars, NOZOMI had experienced a very
strong solar energetic proton event associated with a strong solar
flare. This caused a short circuit in one of the subsystems and a
loss of telemetry signal, which made the Mars orbit insertion
impossible.

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For more information, please contact:

Monique Billette
Communications Advisor
Canadian Space Agency
Telephone: (450) 926-4370
E-mail:

*****

Solar storm threatens U of C-led Mars probe
By Dennis Urquhart

A short circuit aboard a Japanese satellite means an uncertain destiny for a U
of C-led research probe headed for Mars.

The probe, called the Thermal Plasma Analyzer (TPA), is Canada's first mission
to another planet and was designed by the U of C's Institute for Space Research.
The TPA is one of 14 research projects aboard a Japanese satellite called NOZOMI.

Full story at
http://www.ucalgary.ca/oncampus/week...8-03/mars.html