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Russian Mars mission stuck in Earth orbit

phobosgrunt_start_16_9_l.jpgRussia’s sample-return mission to the Martian moon Phobos got stuck in an Earth orbit shortly after its successful launch (pictured) last night.

A Zenit-2SB rocket carrying the unmanned Phobos-Grunt (Phobos-Soil) probe took off on Wednesday at 12:16 a.m. Moscow time from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The probe separated from its carrier 11 minutes later as planned, but subsequently failed to set out on its calculated path towards Mars.

The head of Russia’s Federal Space Agency, Vladimir Popovkin, said in a Russian television broadcast that neither of the craft’s two engines had fired, probably because of failure of its orientation system. He said Russian space engineers have three days to sort out the problem and get the mission back on track before its batteries die.

Phobos-Grunt is Russia’s third attempt since 1988 to send a probe to Mars or to one of its moons. Both previous missions have failed.

If it can be fixed, the probe should reach Mars in October 2012 and land on Phobos four months or so later. It is designed to collect a soil sample from the surface of Phobos and return it to Earth by August 2014.

Image credit: German Aerospace Agency (DLR)

Comments

  1. Report this comment

    zadoc said:

    POLL: Will Russia be able to save the Mars Phobos-Grunt probe?

    Vote: https://www.wepolls.com/p/4857067

    I seriously doubt it, but I really hope they can. The idea of a return mission from Phobos is really exciting to me.

  2. Report this comment

    dexro said:

    I really believe that they can and I cant wait till 2014 to see the results.

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