Probe fails to go into orbit around Venus


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(CNN) -- Japan's space probe has failed to go into orbit around Venus, the country's space agency said Wednesday.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said it lost communication with the probe temporarily. When it reestablished contact, it learned that Akatsuki had not entered Venus' orbit as it was scheduled to do Tuesday.

"We are sorry that we could not live up to the expectation of the people in Japan," Masato Nakamura, the project team leader said at a news conference.

Akatsuki, whose name means "dawn," was supposed to observe Venus for two years, the agency said.

Launched six months ago, its aim is to gather data on a Venusian wind pattern called super-rotation.

The refrigerator-sized probe is also supposed to study the sulfuric acid that envelops the planet and look for lightning.

A near-infrared camera on the probe also can peer through the murky atmosphere to get a glimpse of the planet's surface.

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The must be gutted. All that work and it goes wrong in a couple of minutes.

This made me smile though:

"We are sorry that we could not live up to the expectation of the people in Japan," Masato Nakamura, the project team leader said at a news conference.

It just seems like something the Japanese would say. I wouldn't expect NASA to say the same thing if they got it wrong.

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That would really suck.

Also as soon as i read the name all i could think of was Naruto being that Akatsuki was the bad guys in part of it and it failed. Perhaps its failing was in its name.

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That would really suck.

Also as soon as i read the name all i could think of was Naruto being that Akatsuki was the bad guys in part of it and it failed. Perhaps its failing was in its name.

lol. As soon as I read Akatsuki, I thought of Tobi. :p

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It just seems like something the Japanese would say. I wouldn't expect NASA to say the same thing if they got it wrong.

Indeed. Japanese culture is greatly involved in honor and reputation. Without doubt the Japanese team responsible is deeply apologetic and probably feel they have dishonored their families and country.

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I never like hearing that space missions go wrong. It just slows down the time it takes to learn about our solar system.

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Indeed. Japanese culture is greatly involved in honor and reputation. Without doubt the Japanese team responsible is deeply apologetic and probably feel they have dishonored their families and country.

if Nasa had something go wrong like this, everyone involved would be feeling exactly the same way as the people who worked on the Japanese Venus probe .... its just that the culture there makes them express it in a different way

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I think it's down to the calculations at the beginning which caused it to miss. Either that or the loss of communication was during a crucial time where they needed to angle the probe slightly so that it would enter Venus's orbit.

Either way, yes to your question, I imagine that the probe missed the planet's orbit and is now on it's way out of our solar system.

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