[extropy-chat] Mars probe marred

[Amara Graps]

One (sad) joke I heard on Friday is that, since Mars eats spacecraft,
maybe Nozomi is the sacrificial animal to the Mars gods so that the
other spacecraft can arrive safely at the end of this year....

I do hope that Nozomi continues as the latest news (thanks 'gene)
indicates. It has an interplanetary dust dataset that hints to be very
valuable. (One result of it's re-engineered trajectory after it missed
its target the first time.) I would like to see Mars in-situ dust
data. Mars rings, anyone?

Dan:
>BTW, on the general topic of the Japanese space program, it's a
>rather lackluster effort. I mean I expected a lot more seeing how
>well Japan does in other high technology areas. Any ideas on why
>this is the case?

I wish I knew! Nozomi carries a dust detector that is closely
followed by my dust colleagues and I; my old group has performed
some work, made calculations, and even one PhD thesis from one
colleague in München came out of it. My German colleagues are
co-investigators on that dust instrument, so why do they need to
push always to get the data and engineering information? The
Japanese space agency management has acted consistently in a
very closed manner, and this practice doesn't support well
international collaborations. Maybe this provides a clue to
an answer to your question?

Amara


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Amara Graps, PhD          email: amara at amara.com
Computational Physics     vita:  ftp://ftp.amara.com/pub/resume.txt
Multiplex Answers         URL:   http://www.amara.com/
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"The best presents don't come in boxes." --Hobbes