Launch News (Failure) Phobos-Grunt and YingHuo-1 atop Zenit-2 on November 8/9, 2011

[N_Molson]

One of the main newspaper here report that, "according to Russian sources, the Phobos-Grunt Mars Probe crashed into the Pacific".

 

[Urwumpe]

By the way, 18.2 S 49.3 W is here:

http://maps.google.ru/maps?q=18.2+S...92969&sspn=7.169424,16.907959&vpsrc=6&t=m&z=4

:idk::facepalm:

Precise targeting. :lol:

 

[NovaSilisko]

Hopefully it didn't kill Moach.

 

[garyw]

Something from celestrak on the expected splashdown location -> http://celestrak.com/events/reentry/phobos-grunt.asp

 

[SiberianTiger]

http://ria.ru/science/20120115/540183548.html

MOSCOW, Jan 15 - RIA Novosti. Russian ballisticians confirmed coordinates of the central point of Phobos-Grunt's reentry: 310.7 degrees East and 18.2 degrees South with a long swath of debris deposit, told RIA Novosti a source in rocket and space industry.

The point with these coordinated is located in Brazilian state Goiás.

Eearlier information was that reentry happened over the Pacific Ocean.

Still no authoritative statement on this.

If that's true, then everything bad that happened to Phobos-Grunt, happened over Brazil. Is that what Popovkin meant?..

 

[NovaSilisko]

My current understanding is it hit dense atmosphere over the pacific, burned for a ways, then broke up over Brazil.

 

[Artlav]

Sounds like the news pipes are having a sewage overflow at the moment.
So, let's call it a night and wait for the consensus tomorrow?

 

[MaverickSawyer]

No argument here!

 

[orb]

Parabolic Arc: Phobos-Grunt Sleeps With the Fishes:

The derelict Phobos-Grunt spacecraft has returned to Earth in a crash more spectacular than Tim Tebow’s flame-out in New England last night. Preliminary reports have the spacecraft re-entering in the South Pacific off the coast of Chile. However, the Twitterosphere is abuzz with alternate reports of it coming down over Brazil. A definite answer is due within the next day. There have been no reports of injuries.

{...}

Universe Today: Doomed Phobos-Grunt Mars Mission Destructively Plunges to Earth

Spaceflight Now: Ill-fated Mars probe reportedly falls to Earth

CBS News Space: Russian space officials say ill-fated Mars probe falls to Earth

Discovery News: Dead Russian Mars Probe Reenters Over the Pacific

collectSPACE: Failed Russian Mars probe Phobos-Grunt falls back to Earth, drops debris in ocean

 

[MeDiCS]

By the way, 18.2 S 49.3 W is here:

http://maps.google.ru/maps?q=18.2+S...92969&sspn=7.169424,16.907959&vpsrc=6&t=m&z=4

:idk::facepalm:

Ah, so the foreign powers' plan was to strike Brasilia

 

[Screamer7]

Remember the movie 2010 by Arthur C Clarke? They launched a probe from the Alexia Leonov to Europa to investigate some anomalies.
:hmm:
That probe has a cunning resembling of Phobos Grunt.

 

[orb]

RIA Novosti: Russian Deputy PM Rogozin to oversee investigation of Phobos-Grunt failure

Parabolic Arc: Russian Deputy PM Takes Personal Control of Phobos-Grunt Inquiry, Seeks “Culprits”

 

[fdex]

about Phobos reentry..
“If anyone gets to see it, it will be a fabulous show. I don't think there has been an explosion of such a large volume of fuel in space history,” Igor Marinin, editor of a space journal published by Roskosmos, said earlier on Sunday.

so..till now no witness of the big show ?!

 

[orb]

Zarya.info: Where Did Phobos-Grunt Re-enter?

Phobos-Grunt's possible reentry path​

The Planetary Society Blog: Phobos-Grunt is no more

SPACE.com: Where On Earth Did Russia's Dead Mars Probe Crash?

 

[SiberianTiger]

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20120117/170793805.html

U.S. Radar May Have Damaged Russian Mars Probe - Paper

07:36 17/01/2012
MOSCOW, January 17 (RIA Novosti)

A powerful electromagnetic emission from a U.S. radar in the Pacific could have caused the malfunctioning of the Russian Phobos-Grunt probe, the Kommersant daily said on Tuesday.

A Russian government investigation commission is considering several causes of the failure, including a short circuit or “external impact,” the paper said citing an unnamed source in the Russian space industry.

“Experts do not dismiss the possibility that the probe could have accidentally come under the impact of emissions [from a U.S. radar stationed on the Marshall Islands], whose megawatt impulse triggered the malfunctioning of on-board electronics,” the source said.

The source did not specify the type of the radar, but said it was monitoring the trajectory of an asteroid at the time of the Phobos-Grunt launch.

The source stressed that it was more likely an accident rather than a determined act of sabotage.

The government commission officials have refused to comment on the claim, Kommersant said.

The commission is expected to inform the head of the Russian Federal Space Agency Roscosmos Vladimir Popovkin of the preliminary results of the investigation on January 20.

Popovkin earlier suggested that the inexplicable malfunction of the Russian spacecraft could have been caused by “interference from a foreign technical facility.”

The official results of the investigation will be made public on January 26, Kommersant said.

I am most ashamed of Kommersant reporter Ivan Safronov-Jr. who wrote this. He has literally forsaken the face of his father. :facepalm:

 

[NovaSilisko]

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20120117/170793805.html



I am most ashamed of Kommersant reporter Ivan Safronov-Jr. who wrote this. He has literally forsaken the face of his father. :facepalm:

I think a more likely explanation is an error with the telemetry stream causing something to go wrong.

 

[SiberianTiger]

I think a more likely explanation is an error with the telemetry stream causing something to go wrong.

Whatever you really meant, telemetry streams have nothing to do with the real source of the accident. On orbit 1, telemetry was received all right. On orbit 2, the spacecraft appeared dead. That's the long story short.

 

[Orbinaut Pete]

U.S. Radar May Have Damaged Russian Mars Probe - Paper

Perhaps if Roscosmos put as much effort into quality control as they do concocting conspiracy theories, we'd have had a successful mission. :dry:

 

[SiberianTiger]

Few latest publications in media originate in the following anonymous post made at NK forum:
http://www.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=873327#873327

To keep it straight: PhG has really passed zenith over Kwajalein at its 1st orbit at 20:44:30 UTC.

Going to the heart of it... The most sensible scenario of the spacecraft's loss orginating from insiders' sources, is like:

1. The initial failure to make the MDU burn is most probably happened because of a software error. In addition, post-mortem tests of the computer system revealed CPU load at more than 90%, which could easily be followed by failure and rebooting when any more instruments are switched on (star trackers, the Chinese probe) outside of trackable zone. No possibility of power supply failure is regarded viable at that moment, power system was beyond suspiction.

2. Speaking about the situation after the successful transmission of a command on the spacecraft: they have really switched on the X-band trasmitter, but this thing emits 40 W while consuming whole 200 W. After it was powered on, the occulation phases were long, which very quickly drained all batteries: first buffer accumulators, then chemical batteries, which then exploded on November, 28. And this was the end of the spacecraft's sensible life.

 

[SiberianTiger]

My thought is that CPU power balance might not be revalidated after the Chinese "Firefly" was poked inside following a political decision to do so.