Japan's trouble-plagued first mission to Mars was abandoned on Tuesday in the latest of a series of costly failures to hit the country's space program.The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency made a final attempt 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. "But we failed to fix the short-circuit in the electric system and, as the result, we gave up the plan to place Nozomi into orbit around Mars," said Yasunori Matogawa, an agency researcher in charge of the mission. "From now on, we will continue trying to fix the circuit so that we may be able to use the probe for other space observatorial purposes," Matogawa said. Nozomi, Japan's first Martian probe, was launched in 1998 with an initial plan to go into orbit around the Red Planet by the summer of 1999 at a cost of 20 billion yen ($186 million ).

But the probe experienced a problem with fuel consumption in its first year and its attempt to swing by the Earth's orbit to gain momentum before travelling to Mars failed.

Nozomi was then damaged by an extensive solar flare in April last year, which crippled some communications equipment and devices that maneuver the probe.

Nozomi will sail past Mars next week to become the latest in a long list of Mars mission failures.

The next attempt will come from Europe, when its spacecraft, Mars Express, and a companion British-made rover called Beagle reach the Red Planet on Dec. 24, with two NASA rovers to follow in January.


View: Full Article | Source: Discovery Channel