Will Russia ever launch another Phobos Grunt mission?

I would love to see another space agency with eyes on or near Mars so that there is no monopoly of the planet and data like there is at the moment ,it was unfortunate that the first Phobos Grunt mission failed no wonder though apparently they sent it off with its flight control system only partially completed while they were going to install the rest of the programming on the way to Phobos which just seems a bit unproffesional to me
www.russianspaceweb.com...

I wonder if another mission will make it or would it meet with an untimely demise enroute do you think NASA/JPL would tolerate someone else playing in their sandbox cause it would be nice to have a second opinion or even a third one for that matter on stuff they find or report that they don't find out there...

reply to post by cookiemonster32


others that would play in the same sandbox would do so under owner of sandbox's rule
so that would defeat what you imply

i'd think the only way to achieve what you suggest here is...on your own

the astronaut farmer was a good movie with billy bob thorton...

reply to post by lasvegasteddy


Yes! I loved that movie especially the part the bank wanted to reposses his house so he threw the brick through the window with the note that they could have it one brick at a time

Originally posted by cookiemonster32
I would love to see another space agency with eyes on or near Mars so that there is no monopoly of the planet and data like there is at the moment ,it was unfortunate that the first Phobos Grunt mission failed no wonder though apparently they sent it off with its flight control system only partially completed while they were going to install the rest of the programming on the way to Phobos which just seems a bit unproffesional to me
www.russianspaceweb.com...

I wonder if another mission will make it or would it meet with an untimely demise enroute do you think NASA/JPL would tolerate someone else playing in their sandbox cause it would be nice to have a second opinion or even a third one for that matter on stuff they find or report that they don't find out there...

The biggest problem in Russia is a total corruption. You say that "its flight control system only partially completed". I say it was not installed at all - but somebody collected the money for it. Russians actually blame HAARP for the failure, it was in many Russian newspapers and forums :-)

Will Russia ever launch another Phobos Grunt mission?

Surely, but this time with a strong escort defense of weaponry.

The European Space Agency (ESA), partnered with Russia, are planning ExoMars mission, to look for signs of life. An orbiter and a stationary lander is planned for 2016, and a Russian lander to deliver the rover is planned for 2018.

en.wikipedia.org...
exploration.esa.int...
www.russianspaceweb.com...

Originally posted by cookiemonster32
I would love to see another space agency with eyes on or near Mars

You mean like Mars Express? Its orbiter is still orbiting Mars and providing data to the European space agency.

Will Russia ever launch another Phobos Grunt mission?

Ever since the failure of the Phobos-Grunt space mission, Russian scientists at IKI have been talking about the proposal for a repeat mission, whose outcome depends on Russia's participation in the European ExoMars mission. It came to pass, and Roscosmos isn't going to repeat Phobos-Grunt, at least for the time being, or at all.

Roskosmos groups can face financial liability for failures. There are worst to come. The chief designer for Glosnass has been fired a month ago, and criminal cases and possible indictments are pending against others, particularly the scientists and engineers that formed the team behind the Phobos-Grunt mission (which I think it has already been disbanded), at both IKI and Lavochkin.


On an ending note, the project website phobos.cosmos.ru... is still online at the time of this writing, I strongly fear that this could be used as an official site for the Russian participation in ExoMars, I think. U.S. space law lawyer Michael Listner said that Phobos-Grunt is "way too ambitious and way too underfunded to reach its goal", possibly condemning it. I guess that this is the law that Russian organizations has violated - and they have to put on trial by the Russian court and its jury if indicted.

By the way, activist group Anonymous and its sub-group #AntiSec may be planning to take on Russian organizations linked with the failed Phobos-Grunt mission through the Operation Russia flag, either through protests and other public actions, or any legal online action. Anyway, I don't think it may happen anytime soon.