Newest Russian Mars-Phobos Probe Launched -- AND FAILS

Big picture -- this could be the BIGGEST YET Russian
space disaster in a year highlighted by BIG space disasters --
but the hardware has no connection with the manned program
and almost certainly will NOT affect plans to send a relief crew
to the International Space Station late next week.

This is bound to revive memories of previous Soviet-era Mars probes
which met mysterious ends during attempts to explore these worlds.

Russia's attempt to overcome a quarter century's absence
from interplanetary exploration appears to have quickly ended
in ignominious disaster.
www.msnbc.msn.com...

The Fobos-Grunt [Phobos-Dirt] probe was placed in parking orbit
by a 'Zenit' booster on Tuesday afternoon EST, and a 'Fregat'
propulsion module was supposed to then ignite twice to fling it
out towards Mars.

But it now seems that this maneuver has failed and the probe
remains trapped in parking orbit.

Reports also are that the control computer has entered 'safe mode'
and is not transmitting readable telemetry information.

Pre-launch, Russian scientists had asked people in South America
to look for the probe as it lit its rocket engine while passing over that
region of the world.

A number of reliable reports have come in from Brazil. But in Moscow, meanwhile,
Russian space officials have retreated behind a wall of silence -- a sure sign
of a major, MAJOR space disaster.

One of the observations was by the crew of the International Space Station, which
quite by chance was within visual range of the rocket. They reported they
had seen the probe in orbit but NEVER saw its engine ignite [from an internal
Mission Control memo that was shared with me an hour ago -- but has not been
released to the news media]

I was the guy who alerted NASA's 'Mission Control' to that opportunity,
when I forwarded the information to old friends of mine there. They jumped at
the chance to have the crew take part in the observation program.

These observations may now be critical to an autopsy of what may have
happened to shut down the probe -- or perhaps, to even find a way to restart it
and try again to fire the engines.

There remains a remote chance that Russian space controllers can restore
control and rescue the mission.

But they are laboring under a crippling burden of a practically non-functioning
space tracking network with few opportunities to exchange radio signals with the
probe as it circles the Earth mostly out of range of Russia.

Jeeezzz!

What the hell is it with Russia and its Mars missions? Jinxed or what!

What do you reckon, Jim? What are the chances the mission can be recovered? What options do they have?

And why is this in the aliens forum? You think it was knocked out by them pesky grays?

hmm...
Looks like the Russians were hitting the vodka just a little bit too hard while making the probe.
At least they had a lot of late night drunken 'probe' jokes...

What a shame. A very exciting and ambitious mission.

Dick Hoagland will have a field day with this.

reply to post by JimOberg


Ahh, lets see how many "UFO killed mission" posts we get. Keep in mind, these are the same people that are in the business of shuttling NASA.

EDIT - www.abovetopsecret.com...

Originally posted by JimOberg
But it now seems that this maneuver has failed and the probe
remains trapped in parking orbit.

Well no biggie... we can just have the Secret Astronauts zip up there and fix it..

I mean whats the point of having that X-37 flying around up there doing who knows what when they can lend a hand to comrades?

Originally posted by Phage
What a shame. A very exciting and ambitious mission.

Dick Hoagland will have a field day with this.

Exactly. Really exciting.

And spot on re Hoagland! He's gotta be loving this.. I bet he has a story prepared already .....

What a waste and sadly a tradgey !

So much resources ! even the chinese had a sat up in there

It just goes to you show you the seriousness of space travel. How young we still are

and you would have some talking about space tours lol

its dangerous , risky , expensive , and really frowned upon in fauilures .

You learn from mistakes right. HOpefully the telemetry kicks back in and were good to go again.

reply to post by JimOberg


That is a darn shame. It was a really ambitious mission.

I wonder if there's a way to go up and boost it into a higher orbit in preparation for a possible recovery? Probably not.

From a scientific point of view, it's a real shame. From an American point of view, I'm glad. Russia still is not on board with creating a more harmonious world. On the surface they won't do much, but you can be sure that they are doing all they can behind the scenes to make life difficult for the US. So any failure of theirs is good to me.

Originally posted by lazernation
And why is this in the aliens forum? You think it was knocked out by them pesky grays?

[

There are lots of theories about why earlier probes failed. Just because I'm not personally persuaded by those that involve enemy action, doesn't mean it's not a hot subject that can use latest news inputs. No other motives than sharing new developments in a theme that has long been associated by many with potential non-human interventiuon.

reply to post by OccamsRazor04


evidence for your allegations??Its commie amerika which is hell bent on creating wars and destroying harmony everywhere,not capitalist russia..Its commie amerika that has 40% income tax not Russia(only flat tax 13%)...Its commie Amerika that wants to steal oil from other countries not capitalist Russia.....Its commie Amerika where the TSA KGB porno scan eye and monitor your calls and label you terrorist if you are against them....its commie Amerika which has massive income tax inequality not capitalist Russia...its commie amerika that spends massive amounts of real GDP on aggression and weapons not capitalist Russia....its commie amerika where regulations are insane that small businesses fail,but in capitalist Russia businesses flourish and its more reason that Texas should secede from this communist nightmare.

Heard this morning on the news that they have not had a successful mission in the last 20 years or so?
Amazing how they cant even get past the earths orbit with "modern technology" but 40 years ago they could?!

Originally posted by Phage
What a shame. A very exciting and ambitious mission.

Dick Hoagland will have a field day with this.

Exnay on the Hoaglandnay

I think it's a shame too. The Russians aren't batting too well this season

Originally posted by JimOberg

Originally posted by lazernation
And why is this in the aliens forum? You think it was knocked out by them pesky grays?

[

There are lots of theories about why earlier probes failed. Just because I'm not personally persuaded by those that involve enemy action, doesn't mean it's not a hot subject that can use latest news inputs. No other motives than sharing new developments in a theme that has long been associated by many with potential non-human interventiuon.

Calm down, Mr O. I was just having a giggle witya.

According to folks on here forum.nasaspaceflight.com... :

"Specialists are already working on two versions about why the spacecraft wasn't able to switch to Star orientation.

The first one is a programming mistake. If this is true - it can be corrected easily and the spacecraft will fly to Mars.

The second version - a hardware problem - failure of hardware components - like sensors... This would mean that Phobos-Grunt can't continue its trek to Mars."

Apparently, if it is a programming issue, they have three days to sort it out before the batteries die. Get to work boys and girls!!!!!!

Hey....we have screwed up a few Mars probes also...one particular example of stupidity is when a programming mistake cross data inputted Meters and yards or feet. Garbage in....Garbage out! Split Infinity

Man, this is so depressing. I was really looking forward to this mission. I really wanted some nice images of Phobos and that monolith.

I guess the Russians didn't get the hint over twenty years after Phobos I and II were lost. We do know that there are photos that have been released by the Russians showing something between the probe itself and the moonlet of Phobos. We do know that at least Phobos II was equipped with ground penetrating lasers that would have been able to transmit back to Earth just exactly what Phobos was or was not made of. There has to be a reason other than that of mechanical or guidance failure that led to the disappearance of the Photos II probe. There are reasons as to why this probe was destroyed. Whatever that was and still is on Phobos knew what the Russians were doing and the contents of the mission and they did not want us to get our hands on anything.

It has been known that the Russians believe Phobos II was shot down by something. They were also aware of the probe possibly being watched as it flew over the surface of Mars. In the photo containing the shadow, you can see the unusual shadow along the surface. The Russian Space Agency and scientists have both agreed the photo of the shadow is not laying horizontally to the surface of Mars. Also, whatever the shadow was, it could not have been anything on the surface of Mars that showed up. This shadow had to have been the surface and standing in a vertical position. It was also determined that this shadow was moving when the photos were taken.




The last photo coming from Phobos II shows an object approaching the probe just before communciation with the probe was lost. This object is the one that the Russians believe was the one that destroyed Phobos II. It may have been some form of defensive response to the probe flying around Mars and Phobos. It has been said that the Russians knew, and still know, what actually happened to the Phobos II probe. They knew that the object shown in the photo that was there should not have been there when it was. It is believed that this white cylindrical object is what destroyed the Phobos II space probe. There are photos out there that the Russians have never released to the public pertaining to the disappearance. Whatever these photos show, the Russians do not want anyone other than higher ups in the Russians government to have access to. These photos, whatever they show, may or may not show something that sheds light on the mysterious disappearances of the Phobos I & II probes.

Could it have been possible that there was someone or something up there that didn't want the probe there? Whoever it was that shot down Phobos II knew what this probe was or wasn't going to be doing.
Someone did not want us or the Russians sending probes to Mars then and they don't want us up there.

Aren't they like a 3rd world country? Where do they get all this funding? Vodka?

Anybody know at what altitude the probe is and what its decay rate is ?

Even though the batteries will be exhausted in three days, the package itself should still be recoverable and redeployed at a later date.

As Zorgon has posted, the x-37 mini-shuttle could easily move it to a parking orbit until it can be fixed via a soyuz capsule.

It would be a shame to waste it for such a minor malfunction.

Cosmic..