A Japanese space probe has hurtled past Venus after failing to enter the planet’s orbit as planned, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said yesterday, but it voiced hope for a successful rendezvous six years from now.
The Akatsuki (Dawn) probe blasted off in May on a US$300 million mission to observe the toxic atmosphere and super-hot volcanic surface of Venus.
However, in a setback for Japan’s space program, the box-shaped golden probe failed to enter the planet’s gravitational pull and shot past it, JAXA said.
“It will come close to Venus again in roughly six years, giving us another opportunity,” said JAXA spokesman Hitoshi Soeno, who said that ground control in Sagamihara near Tokyo was still in command of the probe.
Masato Nakamura, the chief developer of Akatsuki, said a second attempt was “highly doable,” the Jiji Press news agency reported.
The Akatsuki, also called the Planet-C Venus Climate Orbiter, was sent on a mission to orbit and observe Venus for two years, working closely with the European Space Agency’s Venus Express.
It is fitted with two paddle-shaped solar panels and five cameras to let it peer through the planet’s thick layer of sulphuric acid clouds, and was also due to search for signs of lightning and for active volcanoes.
Scientists believe that investigating the climate of Venus would deepen their understanding of the formation of the Earth’s environment and its future.
“We started the maneuver to put the Venus probe Akatsuki into orbit around Venus at 8:49am on Dec. 7 ... but have confirmed that we could not put it into the orbit,” JAXA said in a statement.
The exact cause of the failure was not officially determined yet, but one possible explanation was that the probe did not slow down enough near Venus to be pulled in by the planet’s gravity, Soeno said.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of