Nozomi (spacecraft)

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Nozomi

Artist's concept of Nozomi orbiter at Mars
Names	PLANET-B
Mission type	Mars orbiter
Operator	JAXA
COSPAR ID	1998-041A
SATCAT no.	25383
Website	isas.jaxa.jp
Mission duration	5 years, 5 months and 6 days
Spacecraft properties
Manufacturer	ISAS
Launch mass	540 kg (1,190 lb)[1]
Dry mass	225 kg (496 lb)
Payload mass	33 kg (73 lb)[1]
Dimensions	1.6 × 1.6 × 0.58 m (5.2 × 5.2 × 1.9 ft)[1]
Start of mission
Launch date	July 3, 1998, 18:12:00 UTC
Rocket	M-V
Launch site	Uchinoura Space Center
End of mission
Disposal	Decommissioned
Deactivated	December 31, 2003
Last contact	December 9, 2003
Orbital parameters
Reference system	Heliocentric
Transponders
Frequency	X-band: 8410.93 MHz S-band: 2293.89 MHz
PLANET series ← Suisei Akatsuki →

Nozomi (Japanese: のぞみ, lit. "Wish" or "Hope", and known before launch as Planet-B) was a Japanese Mars orbiter that failed to reach Mars due to electrical failure. It was constructed by the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, University of Tokyo and launched on July 4, 1998, at 03:12 JST (July 3, 1998, at 18:12 UTC) with an on-orbit dry mass of 258 kg and 282 kg of propellant.^{[citation needed]} The Nozomi mission was terminated on December 31, 2003.^{[citation needed]}

Nozomi was designed to study the upper Martian atmosphere and its interaction with the solar wind and to develop technologies for use in future planetary missions. Specifically, instruments on the spacecraft were to measure the structure, composition and dynamics of the ionosphere, aeronomy effects of the solar wind, the escape of atmospheric constituents, the intrinsic magnetic field, the penetration of the solar-wind magnetic field, the structure of the magnetosphere, and dust in the upper atmosphere and in orbit around Mars. The mission would have also returned images of Mars' surface.^{[citation needed]}