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Mars Base

Scientist: Russia's Failed Mars Moon Probe Worth a Second Try | Russia Phobos-Grunt Spa... - 0 views

www.space.com/bos-grunt-spacecraft-life.html

Phobos-Grunt

shared by Mars Base on 09 Dec 11 - No Cached
  • 08 December 2011
  • European Space Agency to resume tracking Phobos-Grunt this week, after calling off tracking last Friday (Dec. 2),
  • the probe was said to have shown signs of uncontrolled tumbling, yet reports in recent days suggest that its attitude control may now be working
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • unless Phobos-Grunt not only can be contacted, but can be made to accept commands to boost its orbit, the spacecraft will reenter the atmosphere in early January.
  • it is possible that the vibrations and tumbling that will set in as the speeding craft begins interacting significantly with mesospheric air will dislodge the vehicle's most famous component — the return capsule that was to carry a 200-gram sample from the Phobosian surface back to Earth —  sparing it a fiery death
  • the capsule might make a survivable reentry trajectory, miss the oceans, and come down on land, just as it was designed to do
Mars Base

Spaceflight Now | Breaking News | It's alive! Russia's Phobos-Grunt probe phones home - 0 views

www.spaceflightnow.com/...23phobosgrunt

scibyte23 Phobos-Grunt

shared by Mars Base on 23 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • a ground station in Australia heard signals from Russia's marooned Phobos-Grunt Mars mission
  • A tracking station in Perth succeeded in contacting Phobos-Grunt
  • Russia sought help from ESA, which maintains a network of radio stations around the world
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • Perth station heard a signal from Phobos-Grunt at about 2025 GMT (3:25 p.m. EST) Tuesday
  • There has been no contact with Phobos-Grunt since then
  • "no meaningful telemetry" was received from Phobos-Grunt
  • only an acquisition of a radio signal
  • November 23
Mars Base

It's Alive! Russia's Phobos-Grunt Probe Phones Home | Phobos-Grunt Mars Mission | Mars ... - 0 views

www.space.com/signal-esa-ground-station.html

Phobos-Grunt scibyte23

shared by Mars Base on 23 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • the head of Russia's space agency, said after launch the mission could be salvaged until early December
  • many experts said the launch period has already expired, meaning Phobos-Grunt would have to wait until 2013 for another shot at Mars
  • Tuesday's brief contact did not produce telemetry to gain insight into the situation on-board the spacecraft
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Phobos-Grunt is likely functional and charging batteries through its solar panels
  • 23 November
Mars Base

Russia Races to Save Mars Moon Probe from Space Junk Fate | Russia Phobos-Grunt Mars Mo... - 0 views

www.space.com/ars-moon-probe-space-junk.html

Phobos-Grunt scibyte21

shared by Mars Base on 11 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • "I think we have lost the Phobos-Grunt," Vladimir Uvarov, a former space official at the Russian Defense Ministry, told the Russian daily Rossiyskaya Gazeta today (Nov. 10), according to ABC News. "It looks like a serious flaw. The past experience shows that efforts to make the engines work will likely fail."
  • There have been conflicting news reports as to how long the Russians have before the spacecraft's batteries run out, ranging from two days to two weeks
  • The ambitious flight marks Russia's first attempt at an interplanetary mission since 1996.
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • Phobos-Grunt is in a safe, so-called parking orbit, and there is little danger of it colliding with other spacecraft or satellites
  • The space station is above that orbit, and the space station is one of the lowest spacecraft in orbit
  • The U.S. Space Surveillance Network is tracking without difficulty both the Phobos-Grunt spacecraft and its associated Zenit 2 second stage
  • This information is also available to Russian experts. NASA hopes that control of the spacecraft can still be achieved and that it can be sent on its proper path to Mars
  • a rough estimate, the lifetime is measured at several weeks to a few months at that altitude, but probably not much more than that
  • even though the spacecraft is still full of fuel. If the probe cannot be saved, Russian flight controllers have the option of venting out the onboard fuel into space.
  • even if it's full of fuel and it re-enters — it will break up in atmospheric re-entry, which does not really pose a hazard.
Mars Base

Consolation Prize for Phobos-Grunt? Experts Consider Possibilities for Sending Spacecra... - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...spacecraft-to-moon-or-asteroid

scibyte23 Phobos-Grunt

shared by Mars Base on 19 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • Phobos-Grunt could be sent to orbit the Moon
  • or may be even an asteroid
  • Theoretically, Grunt’s lander could set down on any celestial body with a gravitational force similar to that of Phobos
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • If any such asteroid candidate exists
  • return capsule back to Earth might be utilized to deliver a sample of the asteroid
  • November 18
Mars Base

Recent Satellite Crashes Bring Space Junk Problem Into Public Eye | Space Junk & Orbita... - 0 views

www.space.com/shes-public-consciousness.html

scibyte29 satellite crash multimedia

shared by Mars Base on 13 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • 12 January 2012
  • news that a failed Russian Mars probe will come crashing back to Earth in the next few days
  • public perception that the sky is falling —
  • ...14 more annotations...
  • huge pieces of space junk could rain down on us at any moment.
  • Phobos-Grunt spacecraft
  • re-enter the atmosphere sometime between Saturday and Monday (Jan. 14 to Jan. 16).
  • the third uncontrolled satellite re-entry in four months
  • claims are handled on a case-by-case basis, you might be surprised to learn damage from satellite debris, aka space junk, likely would be covered under most insurance policies
  • Farmers Insurance, aired a commercial during this winter's college football bowl games offering similar assurances to its current and potential customers.
  • Experts predict that Russia's failed Mars probe Phobos-Grunt will crash back to Earth in mid-January 2012. This artist's concept shows fuel burning from a ruptured fuel tank as the spacecraft re-enters the atmosphere.CREDIT: Michael Carroll
  • NASA estimates that our planet's orbital debris cloud contains more than 500,000 pieces larger than a marble and more than 20,000 at least as big as a softball
  • space junk poses little threat to people on the ground. Most pieces of falling satellites burn up the atmosphere
  • the bits that make it through are likely to land harmlessly in the ocean or on uninhabited land
  • To date, nobody is known to have been injured by a chunk of falling debris.
  • poses a real threat to the craft that orbit and observe our planet and provide navigation and telecommunications services
  • 2009, for example, the Iridium 33 communications satellite was destroyed when it slammed into a defunct Russian satellite.
  • This computer illustration depicts the density of space junk around Earth in low-Earth orbit.CREDIT: ESA
Mars Base

Outlook Grim for Stranded Russian Mars Moon Probe | Russia Phobos-Grunt Mars Moon Missi... - 0 views

www.space.com/n-mars-moon-probe-outlook.html

scibyte21 Phobos-Grunt

shared by Mars Base on 11 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • Attempts to contact the beleaguered Phobos-Grunt spacecraft overnight Thursday (Nov. 10) have failed
  • the spacecraft could fall back to Earth around Dec. 3
  • translated from its original Russian, suggested that if Phobos-Grunt does fall back to Earth, it would likely not fall over Russia
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • spacecraft's orbit carries it between the latitudes of 51.4 degrees north and south of the equator, a region that includes the United States, China, Africa, Japan, Ukraine and parts of southwestern Europe
Mars Base

ESA - ESA Spacecraft Operations - ESA station keeps contact with Russian Mars mission P... - 0 views

www.esa.int/...SEM5AJZW5VG_0.html

scibyte23 Phobos-Grunt

shared by Mars Base on 24 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • Following the first successful contact on Tuesday, ESA's tracking station in Australia again established two-way communication with Russia's Phobos–Grunt spacecraft on 23 November
  • data received from the spacecraft have been sent to the Russian mission control centre for analysis
  • The first pass was successful in that the spacecraft's radio downlink was commanded to switch on and telemetry was received
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • The signals received from Phobos–Grunt were much stronger than those initially received on 22 November, in part due to having better knowledge of the spacecraft's orbital position
  • Telemetry typically includes information on the status and health of a spacecraft's systems
  • 24 November
Mars Base

Short Sharp Science: Phobos-Grunt could be rerouted to visit an asteroid - 0 views

www.newscientist.com/...os-mission-phones-home-as.html

scibyte23 Phobos-Grunt

shared by Mars Base on 28 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • missed the window of opportunity for its flight to Mars
  • the probe could still be used in another research mission
  • Phobos-Grunt mission scientist Alexander Zakharov said that if the spacecraft is fully operational, the best scientific mission for it would be to study a near-earth asteroid.
Mars Base

Phobos-Grunt's Mysterious Thruster Activation: A Function of Safe Mode or Just Good Luck? - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...of-safe-mode-or-just-good-luck

scibyte22 Phobos-Grunt

shared by Mars Base on 17 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • Phobos-Grunt probe is still stuck in orbit
  • periodically the spacecraft experiences a mysterious slight boost in its orbit
  • The activation of the spacecraft’s thrusters – the small engines that are designed to steer the craft and make small adjustments  – was an obvious answer.
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • the probe “Corrects her orbit” every now and then.
  • Does this mean that the probe knows where she is? Probably not.
  • If Grunt’s safe mode includes a program that fires thrusters every so often to keep the craft from entering the atmosphere in the event of a malfunction just after reaching low Earth orbit
  • continues to occur, we can expect that the predicted date of atmospheric entry will be moved back again, just as it was moved from late December/early November to mid-January after the first orbital correction episode
  • it could buy more time for controllers to establish communication –although Roscosmos has stated that December is the limit for correcting the problem
Mars Base

Trouble for the Phobos-Grunt Mission - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...e-for-the-phobos-grunt-mission

scibyte21 Phobos-Grunt

shared by Mars Base on 10 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • encountered problems with either computer software or the propulsion system
  • could not detect long spacecraft, now found his position. It was found that the propulsion system failed. There was neither the first nor the second inclusion
  • What should have happened is that two and a half hours after launch, the first burn should have put the spacecraft into an higher orbit around Earth, and a second burn should have occurred 126 minutes later, which would have sent it the spacecraft to Mars. Neither occurred
Mars Base

Russians desperately try to save Mars moon probe (Update) - 0 views

www.physorg.com/...cientists-mars-moon-probe.html

mars scibyte21 Phobos-Grunt

shared by Mars Base on 10 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • A Russian space probe aiming to land on a Mars moon was stuck circling the Earth after equipment failure Wednesday, and scientists raced to fire up its engines before the whole thing came crashing down.
  • successfully launched by a Zenit-2 booster rocket just after midnight Moscow time Wednesday
  • separated from the booster about 11 minutes later and was to fire its engines twice to set out on its path to the Red Planet, but never did
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • probably due to the failure of the craft's orientation system
  • Phobos-Ground was Russia's first interplanetary mission since a botched 1996 robotic mission to Mars, which failed when the probe crashed shortly after the launch due to an engine failure
  • Depending on the actual root of the failure, this is not an impossible challenge
  • the effort to restore control over the probe is hampered by a limited earth-to-space communications network that already forced Russian flight controllers to ask the general public in South America to help find the craft
  • Amateur astronomers were the first to spot the trouble when they detected that the spacecraft was stuck in an Earth orbit
  • About seven tons of nitrogen teroxide and hydrazine, which could freeze before ultimately entering, will make it the most toxic falling satellite ever
  • billed as the heaviest interplanetary probe ever may become one of the heaviest space derelicts to ever fall back to Earth out of control
  • The spacecraft is 13.2 metric tons (14.6 tons), with fuel accounting for a large share of its weight
  • Scientists had hoped that studies of Phobos' surface could help solve the mystery of its origin and shed more light on the genesis of the solar system. Some
Mars Base

[Zenit] Launch of Phobos-Grunt Spacecraft & Yinghuo-1 Space Probe - YouTube - 0 views

www.youtube.com/watch

scibyte23 Phobos-Grunt

shared by Mars Base on 28 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • Mars Base on 28 Nov 11
     
    Launch Video
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