Phobos Grunt and Indian Mars probe faliures and glitches

Hallo, does anyone have any thoughts on why the Phobos Grunt probe and the Indian Mars probe both failed to reach their destination yet the US missions went off as planned could there be skulduggery at work here to ensure that NASA is the only entity to have viable " wheels on the ground" over there on Mars ,and is China going to be launching anything to the red planet in the near future,your thoughts please.....thanks in advance

cookiemonster32
... the Indian Mars probe both failed to reach their destination ...

Quite apart from the fact that your assertion isnt even true, NASA have also had a lot of failures to reach Mars.

Years ago the conspiracy theory was that aliens were stopping *everyone* from reaching Mars.

India's probe is still on the way - it's barely left Earth orbit and is expected to make a burn to send it fully on its way on December 1st.

To answer your specific question, NASA has decades of experience of building inter-planetary probes - it's no surprise they've got good at it.

reply to post by alfa1


Ok I'm terribly sorry about my assertion not being true I don't follow the news all the time I thought that the Indian probe was also kaput but after an initial snag it is back on track,but is it normal for missions to hit so many snags and do you think it is possible that rival nations engage in sabotage to stay ahead of the competition.

Sending stuff to Mars is a crap shoot. The U.S. has been lucky lately, but it's had its fair share of very expensive failures.

reply to post by Blue Shift


Has anyone ever compiled a list of how much hardware has burned up and been destroyed or is floating around our planet or around Mars and attached a dollar value to it?

alfa1

cookiemonster32
... the Indian Mars probe both failed to reach their destination ...

Quite apart from the fact that your assertion isnt even true, NASA have also had a lot of failures to reach Mars.

Years ago the conspiracy theory was that aliens were stopping *everyone* from reaching Mars.

The records of failed probes to Mars tells us that your statement is incorrect about as far as the numbers go. Whether or not some force or another caused the one-side race to investigate Mars is still open.

The Soviets/Russians have had at least 21 failed missions to Mars. Only one was a partial success.
The US had two early failures and a some later ones for a total of about 5 or 6 out of over 20.

The joke around JPL and NASA that a "Mar's Monster" was causing the communist failures.

The US and now the ESA has a reason to not let others investigate Mars and especially Phobos too closely. The grooves on Phobos are not natural. They were created by the act of placing Phobos in its current, almost perfectly circular around Mars. Some grooves may be from mining, but some are caused by the movement of surface materials as the body was brought from the asteroid zone and intelligently maneuvered into position. The Viking orbiter images of 1977 revealed the true nature of Phobos and, thus, Mars. Info about Phobos has been hidden ever since.

Gonna agree there is something preventing us to learn more about our next door neighbor.
I think the things that have landed were items that were in remote locations away from technology or just plain lucky

An interesting list here of all the Mars probes - rate of success has improved in recent years

mars.nasa.gov...

AndyMayhew
An interesting list here of all the Mars probes - rate of success has improved in recent years

mars.nasa.gov...

At least when it comes to the launch part of the mission we generally don't blow up rockets on the launch pad as much as we used to. That's an improvement.

Wow interesting list yip it seems the USA is leading with successful missions the Russians have been punished....and poor Barsoom is littered with scrap metal

Aliensun
The US and now the ESA has a reason to not let others investigate Mars and especially Phobos too closely. The grooves on Phobos are not natural.

Well, maybe they're natural for Phobos. I guess it's a matter of how precise you think something artificial should look. Those grooves are not as regular as I would expect from something artificial. I guess I hold my ancient alien engineers to a little higher level of craftsmanship.

Far as im aware the Indian Mars probe has not failed to reach its destination, its in transit and using the Earth to gain escape velocity, there is a world of a difference! Give them a chance!

cookiemonster32
reply to post by alfa1

 

Ok I'm terribly sorry about my assertion not being true I don't follow the news all the time I thought that the Indian probe was also kaput but after an initial snag it is back on track,but is it normal for missions to hit so many snags and do you think it is possible that rival nations engage in sabotage to stay ahead of the competition.

Are you aware how ridiculously hard it is to get something into stable orbit, around earth?

Just because we have gotten good at it, doesn't take away from how hard it actually is.

TO get to mars? 1000X more complex, the math alone requires PHD level skills.

Simple mistakes end with the probe missing or slamming into the surface, which has happen.

Don't let the commonality of something take away from the immense accomplishment and work it takes to do it right.

cookiemonster32
Hallo, does anyone have any thoughts on why the Phobos Grunt probe and the Indian Mars probe both failed to reach their destination yet the US missions went off as planned could there be skulduggery at work here to ensure that NASA is the only entity to have viable " wheels on the ground" over there on Mars ,and is China going to be launching anything to the red planet in the near future,your thoughts please.....thanks in advance

edit on 18-11-2013 by cookiemonster32 because: Cause indian probe still en route

How about using simple LOGIC on this for once bigger budget and MORE experience it's it really that difficult to figure out ?

Aliensun
They were created by the act of placing Phobos in its current, almost perfectly circular around Mars.

Perfectly circular orbit?
I'd not heard that claim about Phobos before.

The internet says, about the eccentricity of the orbit of various moons:

Metis = 0.000 02
Deimos = 0.0002
Ganymede = 0.0013
Io = 0.0041
Callisto = 0.0074
Europa = 0.0094
Phobos = 0.0151
Our moon = 0.0549

So Phobos doesnt seem that interesting.
Maybe you were thinking of Deimos.