Nozomi (spacecraft) - Spacecraft and Subsystems

Spacecraft and Subsystems

The Nozomi orbiter is a 0.58 meter high, 1.6 meter square prism with truncated corners. Extending out from two opposite sides are solar panel wings containing silicon solar cells which provide power to the spacecraft directly or via NiMH (nickel metal hydride) batteries. On the top surface is a dish antenna, and a propulsion unit protrudes from the bottom. A 5 m deployable mast and a 1 m boom extend from the sides, along with two pairs of thin wire antennas which measure 50 m tip to tip. Other instruments are also arranged along the sides of the spacecraft. Spacecraft communications are via X-band at 8410.93 MHz and S-band at 2293.89 MHz. The 14 instruments carried on Nozomi are an imaging camera, neutral mass spectrometer, dust counter, thermal plasma analyzer, magnetometer, electron and ion spectrum analyzers, ion mass spectrograph, high energy particles experiment, VUV imaging spectrometer, sounder and plasma wave detector, LF wave analyzer, electron temperature probe, and a UV scanner. The total mass budgeted for the science instruments was 33 kg. Radio science experiments were also possible using the existing radio equipment and an ultrastable oscillator. The total mass of Nozomi at launch including 282 kg of propellant was 540 kg.

Canada provided a $5 million thermal plasma analyzer. This was the Canadian Space Agency's first participation in an interplanetary mission.

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