Russian Mars Probe a Fizzer?
November 14th 2011 12:42
Category: Space Probes
Phobos-Grunt, seen undergoing final check before its launch (credit: Roscosmos)
The latest Russian Mars probe failed to reach escape velocity. Currently the Phobos-Grunt space probe is still in Earth orbit. The space probe was on a mission to Phobos one of Mars’ moons. The Russians have just 72 hours to restart the mission, in itself quite a task.
If they manage to get the probe re started they would have really pulled the proverbial rabbit out of the hat.
Initially the mission got off to a good start the liftoff was perfect. The rocket was to fire the booster rocket to place the probe in a trajectory that would reach Mars and then land the probe on Phobos.
The rocket is also carrying a smaller research satellite, the Yinghuo-1 from China. China had hoped that the smaller satellite would be placed in orbit around Mars. The Russian Space agency plans to restart the onboard computers one of the primary computers failed to give the command to start the main booster rocket engine.
The rocket still has a full complement of fuel and the radio telemetry is still operational. It is though that one of the main computers failed during liftoff. Russia has not have a good run with sending probes to Mars.
They have lost many space probes since the 1960s some only partly failing some did work for a short period of time to later become silent. Since 1960s nearly two thirds of Russians space probes to Mars either partially failed or fell silent during their journey to the Red planet.
The cost of the mission is $163 million, any attempt to salvage the operation has an element of urgency.
If the Russians are successful in their salvage attempt and the probe does land on Phobos the information provided would be invaluable.
The information on the composition of the Moon would tell us if it was a captured asteroid or perhaps a fragment of a past planet that was obliterated
is a collision with Mars.
If the mission does not go ahead it is expected that a a ballistic missile will be used to destroy the probe.This will mitigate the possibility that fragments might make their way to Earths surface.
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Comment by S.L.
The Political Brief
Comment by CMoreStars
Astroearth
Camera Sense
Hi S.L.
Since the cold war ended the Russians have been more forthcoming with their space exploration projects.
Now it will up to the China to reciprocate and I don’t think that will happen any time soon at least not in the short term.