>>>If it goes into a solar orbit or crashes, they'll partner with a U.S. mission in the near future to resurect many of the instruments that Nozomi carried. Nozomi 2 perhaps? <<<

Would it be in JAXA's best interest to seek to partner with NASA regarding Mars if Nozomi fails? Japan has the world's 2nd (or perhaps 3rd) largest space budget:

http://www.spaceprojects.com/Chinese-space-program .

Maybe Nozomi has made Mars a source of (hurt) national pride in Japan, such that resources would be taken from other government programs to boost the Mars program?

As you know, NASA's record on Mars is hardly impressive:

http://www.spaceprojects.com/Mars-underachievement

Meanwhile, the space station collaboration has hardly lived up to Japan's expectations:

[see generally: http://www.spaceprojects.com/jp ]

In Mexico there's a neat saying: "sin competencia hay pura INcompetencia" (i.e. without competition there's total incompetence). Personally, as tired as I am of waiting for NASA regarding Mars, I'd be delighted to see at least half a different countries striving to make Mars more accessible, and completely independently of one another. Will Russia get back into the Mars race? I guess it's only a distant goal for China:

http://www.spaceprojects.com/w