On the 8th of November Russia launched an unmanned probe called Phobos Grunt. It contained a Chinese probe. It was supposed to collect soil samples from Mars's moon Phobos but the secondary engines failed and now it's stuck in orbit around the Earth. Phobos Grunt (Grunnt means Earth) and unless the Russians manage to reprogram it in the 1-2 hour slot that they get for communication. I think it is highly unlikely that they will be able to salvage the space craft and it will just be the latest in a long line of Russian space failures. Actually sixteen. They were all mars missions too. One of them was a rocket that exploded on launch. Reports say that this problem occurred because the craft tried to orientate itself with the stars but couldn't pick them up. So it failed to fire the two secondary rockets.
Update November 25: The Russian space agency have now successfully contacted Phobos Grunt in an attempt to salvage the craft. But a Russian space official says that even though they have contacted it it will be very unlikely that they can continue the mission. Scientists predict that the satellite will fall, if not salvaged, between late December and early February. So be careful!
Update November 25: The Russian space agency have now successfully contacted Phobos Grunt in an attempt to salvage the craft. But a Russian space official says that even though they have contacted it it will be very unlikely that they can continue the mission. Scientists predict that the satellite will fall, if not salvaged, between late December and early February. So be careful!
MLA Citation: Correspondent, Jonathan Amos Science. "BBC News - Phobos-Grunt Mars Probe Loses Its Way Just after Launch." BBC - Homepage. 9 Nov. 2011. Web. 14 Nov. 2011. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15631472>.
Very interesting topic. What do you think of all these satellites orbiting the Earth?! isn't it crazy that we are just sending these things up and they just orbit the Earth until they fall back down like the two in October?
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