** The Official Space Flight Thread - The Space Station and Beyond **

Phobos-Grunt

phobosgrunt2.jpg

phobosgrunt1.jpg


The Russian Phobos-Grunt mission is due to launch tonight at 20:16 GMT aboard a Zenit 2FG rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The mission will attempt to enter orbit around Mars, land on the moon Phobos, collect samples and return to Earth.

The launch will be live here.

​

More:

http://www.russianspaceweb.com/phobos_grunt.html
http://www.russianspaceweb.com/phobos_grunt_scenario.html
 
Phobos-Grunt going up:

​

Two planned burns to send it on its way have failed and they have three days to sort the issue before the mission is lost.
 
I hope they get it fixed, such a shame.
What is it with mars, it seems to be dogged with bad luck, compared to other deep space missions. Or is that just media attention.
 
Ah yes, the "Great Galactic Ghoul" ;)

It's definitely not just media exaggeration, if anything it's an important reminder that what we're doing in space isn't easy. It isn't routine. It's extremely difficult, and it's extremely underfunded. Those two don't tend to go well together.
 
PermaBanned said:
http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00003252/

Apparently it's a programming problem, could theoretically be fixed but the ground teams have very little time in which do to it.
Click to expand...

The Russian space agency have now said they have two weeks to resolve the issue.


Meanwhile an animation has appeared which shows the proposed test flight of the Orion spacecraft. The test is called Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1) and is due in 2014:

​
 
Should probably have read that before i posted it: "No mission to Mars since the Viking landers in the 1970s has sought a direct answer to the question of whether life has existed on Mars."

Well i can think of at least one off the top of my head :rolleyes:
 
Not much success with contacting Phobos-Grunt:

http://www.russianspaceweb.com/phobos_grunt_launch.html#11_10

and

"I think we have lost the Phobos-Grunt," Vladimir Uvarov, a former senior space official at the Russian Defence Ministry, told the government daily Rossiyskaya Gazeta.

"It looks like a serious flaw. The past experience shows that efforts to make the engines work will likely fail."
Click to expand...

At this point in time he's probably right.
 
Still no contact:

Attempts during the night to receive a signal from the unmanned lander Phobos-Grunt spacecraft, which failed to reach its orbit after separating from the launch vehicle on November 9, have so far been to no avail, a source in the space industry said on Friday.

“The spacecraft repeatedly passed over the Baikonur station and other Russian and foreign points of space communications during the night. There is no news yet,” the spokesman said.
Click to expand...

RIA Novosti
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom