According to SPACE.com, Russia's Phobos-Grunt mission may be doomed. One analyst involved in the attempt to save the probe is quoted as saying it seems to be "dead in the water." Indeed, the probe has been uncontrolled and out of radio contact since shortly after launch on November 8 except for one brief burst on November 23.
One experienced satellite watcher is predicting the spacecraft will fall back to Earth sometime in January. Of course, since Phobos-Grunt was designed to return rock samples from Mars' moon Phobos to Earth, it has a heat shield for re-entry into Earth's atmosphere. Some fairly large chunk of the probe, therefore, may reach the surface.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment