A solar flare has silenced Japan's first Mars probe, cutting communications with Earth. Japanese officials say the spacecraft's computers can be reconfigured to fix the problem - but this may take six months.
Communications with Nozomi were severed on 21 April, but this was only revealed on Friday by Japan's Education Ministry, which oversees the country's space program.
Sudden explosions on the surface of the Sun release electromagnetic energy and energetic particles. These solar flares can cause disruption to electronics systems on board satellites and even some electronic and power systems on Earth.
Yoshihisa Nemoto of Education Ministry said the computer systems aboard Nozomi are still intact and engineers will work to repair them. Nemoto added that the spacecraft remains on course to reach Mars in December 2003.
Nozomi was launched in July 1998 and was supposed to reach Mars a year later. An orbit correction manoeuvre in December 1998 used up too much fuel, however, throwing the probe off course and delaying its arrival by four years.
The spacecraft cost 11 billion yen ($88m) and will study the Mars's upper atmosphere and ionosphere, focusing on the effect of solar wind. It will also return images to Earth. There are 14 different instruments aboard Nozomi, including a Neutral Mass Spectrometer built by NASA.
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