Wayward Russian probe may fall back to Earth
Artist's concept of the Phobos-Grunt spacecraft which was destined for the Martian moon Phobos. / Roscosmos
MOSCOW - The European Space Agency said it has abandoned efforts to contact a rogue Russian space probe, increasing the likelihood it will plunge to Earth.
The unmanned Phobos-Ground probe was to head to the Mars moon of Phobos on a 2 1/2-year mission to take soil samples and fly them back to Earth. But the probe became stuck in Earth orbit after its Nov. 9 launch and attempts to send commands that could propel it toward the Mars moon have been unsuccessful.
ESA said in a statement Friday that although the agency has halted efforts to contact the probe, it will resume if any changes are reported by the Russian space agency.
A spokesman for the Paris-based ESA told The Associated Press that Russia was going to continue to try to contract the probe over the weekend; he spoke on condition he not be named. Russian space officials could not be reached for comment late Friday.
Russian deputy space chief Vitaly Davydov said last month that if the spacecraft is not sent to Mars, it could fall to Earth sometime between late December and late February.
The failed spacecraft is 14.6 tons; most of that weight, about 12 tons, is highly toxic fuel. Experts say that if the fuel has frozen, some could survive the plummet to Earth, but that if it is liquid it will likely combust from the heat of re-entering the atmosphere.
The mission was planned to reach Mars orbit next September and land on Phobos in February 2013.
Scientists hoped that studies of the Phobos soil would help solve the mystery of its origin and shed more light on the genesis of the solar system. Some believe that the crater-dented moon is an asteroid captured by Mars' gravity, while others think it's a piece of debris resulting from Mars' collision with another celestial object.
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Russia has a long history of failing to reach Mars or quickly failing upon arrival. They had much better success with robotic exploration of Venus, the moon, and Haley's comet. The USA has by far the most successful exploration program.
Ironically, one of the reasons we are in the condition we are in is NOT enough money was spent on our future. Space exploration consumes a mere 3/4 of one percent of the budget--- yet manages to return many many times that to the treasury. [For some reason people just assume that NASA is just like some social programs but on a smaller scale.. that is the money is spend and never seen again.] Likewise, spending money on transportation infrastructure, while costing many many times what space travel cost, provides the means for people to make a living and thus pay that money back in the form on taxes.
For those who detest government's role in our lives--- maybe you are right. In fact, the role of government is not managing our day to day affairs--but rather it is in looking down the road and into the future. NASA just happens to be the worlds for most research and development organization. It has problem solving capabilities far beyond most citizen's ability to comprehend. While nothing would surprise me: The idea that this nation is being out gunning in the production of engineers by china should alarm even republicans. IF NASA does nothing else---it gives young people an incentive to become aerospace/computer scientists/Electrical/Electronic/Biomedical ENGINEERS---the list goes on and on.
So-- yes... we need to help those who are suffering due to the criminal abuses of those on wall street. IN fact, if we could just get those same people locked away from lobbing their local republican/democratic puppets-- maybe they would increase the size of the GD PIE---- instead of making the victim's portion smaller. Then we could have our pie and eat it too. so to speak.
Maybe Russia ought to try something they are more familiar with first, before trying to send scientific equipment to Mars.
Next time they should start off by sending up 14 tons of AK-47's and RPG's to Mars or Phobos. They will probably have no problem getting those to their intended destination.
Anything which curtails our ability to react to eventualities in a nimble manner is stupid, plain and simple. Especially since we were in a unique position to deal with situations like this in a timely manner just a short time ago.
We've burned our bridges and now we need to go to other nations on our knees, begging for a manned lift into space. There is obviously need for us to go into space, otherwise NASA would not still be training astronauts.
We have cut ourselves out of the vast resource our solar system may turn out to be and have left it for other nations to exploit. We'll end up at the mercy of others and you're trying to tell me crippling ourselves in this way is NOT stupid?
To stupid, add blind......