Hope fades for Venus’ only mission to Earth as controllers give devastating update

HOPE is fading fast for Earth’s last mission to Venus after controllers lost contact with the Japanese spacecraft after 14 years.

JAXA, Japan’s space agency, has confirmed that it failed to establish communications with the Venus-orbiting satellite in late April.

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“Since then, we have implemented various measures to restore service, but communication has not yet been restored,” the agency wrote in a statement on Wednesday.

“We are currently working on restoring communication.”

The agency said it would soon announce its next steps.

The spacecraft, named Akatsuki, launched aboard an H2-1 rocket in 2010.

It was Japan’s first interplanetary mission in more than a decade after an electrical failure pulled the plug on the country’s Nozomi Mars mission in 1998.

Akatsuki defied all odds to even reach Venus, let alone successfully report atmospheric data.

The spacecraft’s main engine faltered on the last leg of its journey, leaving the Akatsuki in an orbit around the Sun instead of its intended planet.

Scientists dropped a 65g oxidizer to make the craft lighter and then used altitude control thrusters to push it into Venus orbit – where it has remained ever since.

JAXA began reading data from Akatsuki in 2016.

Akatsuki is the only operational spacecraft on Venus.

Although it teeters along with two retired solar orbiters from NASA and the European Space Agency.

Moonshot

It’s a disappointing and historic year for Japan’s space ventures.

The nation successfully landed a rover on the moon earlier this year, becoming the fifth country to hit the moon.

However, the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) stopped sending signals to Earth just hours after landing.

This was not Japan’s first attempt.

In November, the country attempted a lunar strike with its OMOTENASHI lander as part of NASA’s uncrewed Artemis mission.

JAXA, again, failed to establish stable communication with the mini probe.

Then, in April last year, Japan’s ambitions to become the first country to land commercially on the moon were dashed after contact was lost with the space shuttle Hakuto-R.

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