Phobos-Grunt Has Returned To Earth
Russian Phobos-Grunt Mars probe falls in Pacific Ocean, RIA Novosti
“Phobos-Grunt fragments have crashed down in the Pacific Ocean,” Russia’s Defense Ministry official Alexei Zolotukhin told RIA Novosti, adding that the fragments fell in 1,250 kilometers to the west of the island of Wellington. The spacecraft fell at about 21:45 on Sunday Moscow time [17:45 GMT].”
ESA Coordinates International Satellite Reentry Campaign for Phobos-Grunt
“An international campaign to assess the imminent atmospheric reentry of Russia’s Phobos-Grunt Mars craft is being coordinated by experts in ESA’s Space Debris Office. Participants include NASA and Roscosmos as part of the 12-member Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee”
The US didn’t shoot Phobos-Grunt down (but could have), New Scientist
“Sometime this weekend, Phobos-Grunt will crash into the Indian Ocean. The Russian space probe was supposed to return a sample from Mars’s moon Phobos (hence the name – grunt means “ground” in Russian). But after its launch on 9 November, the upper stages failed, and it remained stuck in low Earth orbit – so low that atmospheric drag will destroy it.”
Folks:
from twitter at 1:19pm, Jan 15,2012:
“The Associated Press
BREAKING: Russian news agency: debris of space probe has fallen into Pacific Ocean. -EF”
Better luck next time. Let there be a next time.
tinker
It’s very sad. I want to see them win one of these.
Sad indeed and we all hope they recover, but with the problems in their space & science programs and other ‘issues’ including those caused by demographics, that may take a while.
Another problem with Soyuz 0 &1 stages falling intact is:What if the perfectly good engines,20 per flight, are sold to Iran by these salvagers?Did NASA get a waiver?They said that some of it was going to China.Russia,NASA could put a simple computer and some fins and steer these stages to an unpopulated area.If re-usability is so great,why doesn’t Russia do it with Soyuz? I researched Space Tourists again.Soyuz uses rings but no stringers in the tanks.So they can take the side force of reentry.The rings look to be made of roller formed tubing.The skin is formed by rollers.The rings could be welded in in place by a wire welder and rotating the tank.The end domes maybe with a giant English Wheel or Hydro forming.A low cost way of making a tank.When they hit the ground they sometimes break apart at the inter tank and catch fire.A weak point.Did not see a big grass fire,but it would be possible.So F9 may not have rings or may be breaking at the inter tank.Hopefully they have already saw where the problem was and strengthened it or since they are going to back down they might just take the parachutes out and do nothing.Looking at the vapor trail in slo mo,stage 2 did look like it was flat and spinning.It may work because ejecting the strap ons,16 engines,it lowers the air loading.Russia may be rotating the stage in space and it hits the air stable or when the explosives vent the tank,it may cause it to rotate.They may do this to not have a lot of small pieces raining down or make it easier to salvage.It might be an accident.It would be hard to steer.If they came in at 200 they could steer to safe area and land like the Shuttle.F9 has 9 engines and too high a loading and the balance may not be correct.
“If re-usability is so great,why doesn’t Russia do it with Soyuz?”
They don’t care? They’re not really going out of their way to develop or do just about anything, so why should they develop reusability?