Word: orbiter
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What a difference a little rocket fuel makes. Nozomi, an unmanned Japanese spacecraft on a mission to Mars since its launch last July, was supposed to reach the Red Planet's orbit this October. But an unforeseen adjustment in the craft's direction has used up more fuel than was projected, and Nozomi will be a little late -- four years, to be exact...
...while to wait before the motion of the two bodies coincides again. "If an error of one degree magnifies to many degrees when traveling on the ocean," says Kluger, "imagine what it's like in space." The mission must now wait for Mars to enter into a slower orbit around the sun in December 2003, at which point Nozuma will need less fuel to get into Martian orbit. Luckily the delay will not affect the mission's objective of broadcasting images and data back to Earth. And by then the Burger King should be open...
...upcoming mission is a two-spacecraft extravaganza. The first ship--set to fly Dec. 10--is the workmanlike Mars Climate Orbiter. Arriving in September 1999, the spacecraft will enter an orbit of the planet that traces a path over the Martian poles, allowing it to study the local atmosphere. Its orbit will position it perfectly to act as a relay satellite for any later ship that may land on the surface. That's a good thing, since three weeks or so after the orbiter leaves Earth, NASA will launch another spacecraft, the more ambitious Mars Polar Lander...
...three children, the youngest of whom, James Merrill, became one of America's finest poets. A short, self-absorbed, prideful, flamboyant fellow--"Good Time Charlie Merrill," his friends called him--he had the unconscious expectation that Great Men always have: that he should be at the center of any orbit he entered. And so he was. As his son once wrote, "Whatever he decided to serve, the victim was meant to choke it down and be grateful...
...successfully constructing the station will be the same kind of achievement as sitting on a flagpole or swallowing goldfish." The space station program is eating up scarce space funding, and Kluger maintains the money would be better spent on unmanned space exploration and manned scientific missions beyond Earth's orbit, such as landing on Mars or returning to the Moon. Those liftoffs don't make great photo-ops, but they make terrific science...