A failed spacecraft mission to Mars
Fobos-Grunt
or
Phobos-Grunt
(Russian:
Фобос-Грунт
, where
грунт
refers to the
ground
in the narrow geological meaning of any type of soil or rock exposed on the surface) was an attempted Russian
sample return mission
to
Phobos
, one of the moons of
Mars
. Fobos-Grunt also carried the Chinese Mars
orbiter
Yinghuo-1
and the tiny
Living Interplanetary Flight Experiment
funded by the
Planetary Society
.
[4]
[5]
It was launched on 8 November 2011, at 20:16
UTC
, from the
Baikonur Cosmodrome
, but subsequent rocket burns intended to set the craft on a course for Mars failed, leaving it stranded in
low Earth orbit
.
[6]
[7]
Efforts to reactivate the craft were unsuccessful, and it fell back to Earth in an uncontrolled
re-entry
on 15 January 2012, over the
Pacific Ocean
,
west of Chile
.
[8]
[9]
[10]
The return vehicle was to have returned to Earth in August 2014, carrying up to 200 g (7.1 oz) of soil from Phobos.
Funded by the
Russian Federal Space Agency
and developed by
Lavochkin
and the
Russian Space Research Institute
, Fobos-Grunt was the first Russian-led interplanetary mission since the failed
Mars 96
. The last successful interplanetary missions were the Soviet
Vega 2
in 1985?1986, and the partially successful
Phobos 2
in 1988?1989.
[11]
Fobos-Grunt was designed to become the first spacecraft to return a macroscopic sample from an extraterrestrial body since
Luna 24
in 1976.
[12]
Project history
[
edit
]
Budget
[
edit
]
The cost of the project was 1.5 billion rubles (US$64.4 million).
[
citation needed
]
Project funding for the timeframe 2009?2012, including post-launch operations, was about 2.4 billion rubles.
[13]
The total cost of the mission was to have been 5 billion rubles (US$163 million).
According to lead scientist
Alexander Zakharov
, the entire spacecraft and most of the instruments were new, though the designs drew upon the nation's legacy of three successful
Luna missions
, which in the 1970s retrieved a few hundred grams of Moon rocks.
[14]
Zakharov had described the Phobos sample return project as "possibly the most difficult interplanetary one to date".
[15]
Development
[
edit
]
The Fobos-Grunt project began in 1999, when the
Russian Space Research Institute
and
NPO Lavochkin
, the main developer of Soviet and Russian interplanetary probes, initiated a 9 million
rouble
feasibility study into a Phobos sample-return mission. The initial spacecraft design was to be similar to the probes of the
Phobos program
launched in the late 1980s.
[16]
Development of the spacecraft started in 2001 and the preliminary design was completed in 2004.
[
citation needed
]
For years, the project stalled as a result of low levels of financing of the Russian space program. This changed in the summer of 2005, when the new government plan for space activities in 2006?2015 was published. Fobos-Grunt was now made one of the program's flagship missions. With substantially improved funding, the launch date was set for October 2009. The 2004 design was revised a couple of times and international partners were invited to join the project.
[16]
In June 2006, NPO Lavochkin announced that it had begun manufacturing and testing the development version of the spacecraft's onboard equipment.
[
citation needed
]
On 26 March 2007, Russia and China signed a cooperative agreement on the joint exploration of Mars, which included sending China's first interplanetary probe,
Yinghuo-1
, to Mars together with the Fobos-Grunt spacecraft.
[
citation needed
]
Yinghuo-1 weighed 115 kg (254 lb) and would have been released by the main spacecraft into a Mars orbit.
[17]
Partners
[
edit
]
NPO Lavochkin
was the project's main contractor developing its components. The Chief Designer of Fobos-Grunt was
Maksim Martynov
.
[18]
Phobos soil sampling and downloading were developed by the GEOHI RAN Institute of the
Russian Academy of Sciences
(Vernadski Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical chemistry) and the integrated scientific studies of Phobos and Mars by remote and contact methods were the responsibility of the
Russian Space Research Institute
,
[19]
where
Alexander Zakharov
served as lead scientist of the mission.
[15]
The Chinese
Yinghuo-1
orbiter was launched together with Fobos-Grunt.
[20]
In late 2012, after a 10?11.5-month cruise, Yinghuo-1 would have separated and entered an 800 × 80,000 km equatorial orbit (5° inclination) with a period of three days. The spacecraft was expected to remain on Martian orbit for one year. Yinghuo-1 would have focused mainly on the study of the external environment of Mars. Space center researchers expected to use photographs and data to study the magnetic field of Mars and the interaction between
ionospheres
, escape particles and
solar wind
.
[21]
A second Chinese payload, the Soil Offloading and Preparation System (SOPSYS), was integrated in the lander. SOPSYS was a microgravity grinding tool developed by the
Hong Kong Polytechnic University
.
[22]
[23]
Another payload on Fobos-Grunt was an experiment from the
Planetary Society
called
Living Interplanetary Flight Experiment
; its goal was to test whether selected
organisms
can survive a few years in
deep space
by flying them through interplanetary space. The experiment would have tested one aspect of
transpermia
, the hypothesis that life could survive space travel, if protected inside rocks blasted by impact off one planet to land on another.
[24]
[25]
[26]
[27]
[28]
The
Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
contributed with a radiation measurement experiment on Fobos-Grunt.
[29]
Two
MetNet
Mars landers developed by the
Finnish Meteorological Institute
, were planned to be included as payload of the Fobos-Grunt mission,
[30]
[31]
but weight constraints on the spacecraft required dropping the MetNet landers from the mission.
[13]
Postponed 2009 launch
[
edit
]
The October 2009 launch date could not be achieved due to delays in the spacecraft development. During 2009, officials admitted that the schedule was very tight, but still hoped until the last moment that a launch could be made.
[27]
On 21 September 2009, the mission was officially announced to be delayed until the next launch window in 2011.
[13]
[32]
[33]
[34]
A main reason for the delay was difficulties encountered during development of the spacecraft's onboard computers. While the Moscow-based company Tehkhom provided the computer hardware on time, the internal NPO Lavochkin team responsible for integration and software development fell behind schedule.
[35]
The retirement of NPO Lavochkin's head Valeriy N. Poletskiy in January 2010 was widely seen as linked to the delay of Fobos-Grunt. Viktor Khartov was appointed the new head of the company. During the extra development time resulting from the delay, a
Polish
-built drill was added to the Phobos lander as a back-up soil extraction device.
[36]
2011 launch
[
edit
]
The spacecraft arrived at
Baikonur Cosmodrome
on 17 October 2011 and was transported to Site 31 for pre-launch processing.
[37]
The Zenit-2SB41 launch vehicle carrying Fobos-Grunt successfully lifted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome at 20:16
UTC
on 8 November 2011.
[
citation needed
]
The Zenit booster inserted the spacecraft into an initial 207 km × 347 km (129 mi × 216 mi) elliptical
low Earth orbit
with an inclination of 51.4°.
[38]
Two firings of the main propulsion unit in Earth orbit were required to send the spacecraft onto the interplanetary trajectory. Since both engine ignitions would have taken place outside the range of Russian ground stations, the project participants asked volunteers around the world to take optical observations of the burns, e.g. with telescopes, and report the results to enable more accurate prediction of the mission flight path upon entry into the range of Russian ground stations.
[39]
Post-launch
[
edit
]
It was expected that after 2.5 hours and 1.7 revolutions in the initial orbit, the autonomous main propulsion unit (MDU), derived from the
Fregat upper stage
, would conduct its firing to insert the spacecraft into the elliptical orbit (250 km x 4150?4170 km) with a period of about 2.2 hours. After the completion of the first burn, the external fuel tank of the propulsion unit was expected to be jettisoned, with ignition for a second burn to depart Earth orbit scheduled for one orbit, or 2.1 hours, after the end of the first burn.
[38]
[40]
[41]
The propulsion module constitutes the cruise-stage bus of Fobos-Grunt. According to original plans, Mars orbit arrival had been expected during September 2012 and the return vehicle was scheduled to reach Earth in August 2014.
[19]
[42]
Following what would have been the planned end of the first burn, the spacecraft could not be located in the target orbit. The spacecraft was subsequently discovered to still be in its initial
parking orbit
and it was determined that the burn had not taken place.
[6]
Initially, engineers had about three days from launch to rescue the spacecraft before its batteries ran out.
[17]
It was then established that the craft's solar panels had deployed, giving engineers more time to restore control. It was soon discovered the spacecraft was adjusting its orbit, changing its expected re-entry from late November or December 2011 to as late as early 2012.
[43]
Even though it had not been contacted, the spacecraft seemed to be actively adjusting its
perigee
(the point it is closest to Earth in its orbit).
[43]
[44]
Contact
[
edit
]
On 22 November 2011, a signal from the probe was picked up by the
European Space Agency's tracking station in Perth
,
Australia
, after it had sent the probe the command to turn on one of its transmitters. The
European Space Operations Centre
(ESOC) in
Darmstadt
,
Germany
, reported that the contact was made at 20:25 UTC on 22 November 2011 after some modifications had been made to the 15 metres (49 ft) dish facility in
Perth
to improve its chances of getting a signal.
[45]
No
telemetry
was received in this communication.
[46]
It remained unclear whether the communications link would have been sufficient to command the spacecraft to switch on its engines to take it on its intended trajectory toward Mars.
[47]
Roscosmos officials said that the window of opportunity to salvage Fobos-Grunt would close in early December 2011.
[47]
The next day, on 23 November 2011, the Perth station again made contact with the spacecraft and during 6 minutes, about 400 telemetry "frames" and Doppler information were received.
[46]
[48]
[49]
The amount of information received during this communication was not sufficient, and therefore it was not possible to identify the problem with the probe.
[49]
[50]
Further communication attempts made by ESA were unsuccessful and contact was not reestablished.
[51]
The space vehicle did not respond to the commands sent by the
European Space Agency
to raise its orbit. Roscosmos provided these commands to ESA.
[46]
From Baikonour,
Kazakhstan
, Roscosmos was able to receive telemetry from Fobos-Grunt on 24 November 2011
[
citation needed
]
but attempts to contact it failed. This telemetry demonstrated that the probe's radio equipment was working and that it was communicating with the spacecraft's flight control systems.
[
citation needed
]
Moreover, Roscosmos's top officials believed Fobos-Grunt to be functional, stably oriented and charging batteries through its solar panels.
[46]
In a late November 2011 interview, the service manager of the European Space Agency for Fobos-Grunt, Wolfgang Hell, stated that Roscosmos had a better understanding of the problem with the spacecraft, saying they reached the conclusion that they have some kind of power problem on board.
[52]
ESA failed to communicate with the space probe in all of the five opportunities the agency had between 28 and 29 November 2011. During those occasions, the spacecraft did not comply with orders to fire the engines and raise its orbit. The Russian space agency then requested that ESA repeat the orders.
[53]
The European Space Agency decided to end the efforts to contact the probe on 2 December 2011, with one analyst saying Fobos-Grunt appeared "dead in the water".
[54]
However, ESA made teams available to assist the Fobos-Grunt mission if there was a change in situation.
[50]
In spite of that Roscosmos stated their intention to continue to try to contact the space vehicle until it entered the atmosphere.
[
citation needed
]
The
U.S. Strategic Command
's
Joint Space Operations Center
(JSpOC) tracked the probe and identified at the start of December 2011 that Fobos-Grunt had an elliptical Earth orbit at an altitude of between 209 km (130 mi) and 305 km (190 mi), but falling a few kilometers each day.
[55]
[56]
Re-entry
[
edit
]
Before reentry, the spacecraft still carried about 7.51 tonnes of highly toxic
hydrazine
and
nitrogen tetroxide
on board.
[7]
[17]
This was mostly fuel for the spacecraft's upper stage. These compounds, with melting points of 2 °C and ?11.2 °C, are normally kept in liquid form and were expected to burn out during re-entry.
[17]
NASA veteran
James Oberg
said the hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide "could freeze before ultimately entering", thus contaminating the impact area.
[7]
He also stated that if Fobos-Grunt were not salvaged, it may be the most dangerous object to fall from orbit.
[7]
Meanwhile, the head of Roscosmos said the probability of parts reaching the Earth surface was "highly unlikely", and that the spacecraft, including the LIFE module and the Yinghuo-1 orbiter, would be destroyed during re-entry.
[17]
Russian military sources claimed that Fobos-Grunt was somewhere over the Pacific Ocean between New Zealand and South America when it re-entered the atmosphere at about 17:45 UTC.
[
citation needed
]
Although it was initially feared its remains would reach land as close as 145 kilometres (90 mi) west of
Santa Fe
, Argentina, the Russian military Air and Space Defense Forces reported that it ultimately fell into the Pacific Ocean, 1,247 km (775 mi) west of
Wellington Island
, Chile.
[9]
The Defence Ministry spokesman subsequently revealed that such estimate was based on calculations, without witness reports. In contrast, Russian civilian ballistic experts said that the fragments had fallen over a broader patch of Earth's surface, and that the midpoint of the crash zone was located in the
Goias
state of
Brazil
.
[57]
[58]
Aftermath
[
edit
]
Initially, the head of Roscosmos
Vladimir Popovkin
, suggested that the Fobos-Grunt failure might have been the result of sabotage by a foreign nation.
[59]
[60]
He also stated that risky technical decisions had been made because of limited funding. On 17 January 2012, an unidentified Russian official speculated that a U.S. radar stationed on the
Marshall Islands
may have inadvertently disabled the probe, but cited no evidence.
[61]
Popovkin suggested the microchips may have been counterfeit,
[62]
[63]
then he announced on 1 February 2012 that a burst of
cosmic radiation
may have caused computers to reboot and go into a standby mode.
[64]
[65]
Industry experts cast doubt on the claim citing how unlikely the effects of such a burst are in low Earth orbit, inside the protection of
Earth's magnetic field
.
[66]
On 6 February 2012, the commission investigating the mishap concluded that Fobos-Grunt mission failed because of "a programming error which led to a simultaneous reboot of two working channels of an onboard computer". The craft's rocket pack never fired due to the computer reboot, leaving the craft stranded in Earth orbit.
[67]
[68]
Although the specific failure was identified, experts suggest it was the culmination of poor quality control,
[69]
[70]
lack of testing,
[71]
security issues and corruption.
[72]
Russian president
Dmitry Medvedev
suggested that those responsible should be punished and perhaps criminally prosecuted.
[62]
[73]
[74]
Repeat mission
[
edit
]
In January 2012, scientists and engineers at the
Russian Space Research Institute
and
NPO Lavochkin
called for a repeat sample return mission called
Fobos-Grunt-2
[75]
and
Boomerang
[76]
[77]
for launch in 2020.
[78]
[79]
Popovkin declared that they would soon attempt to repeat the Fobos-Grunt mission, if an agreement was not reached for Russian co-operation in the
European Space Agency
's
ExoMars
program.
[
citation needed
]
However, since an agreement was reached for the inclusion of Russia as a full project partner,
[80]
some instruments originally developed for Fobos-Grunt were flown in the
ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter
.
[81]
On 2 August 2014, the
Russian Academy of Sciences
stated that the Phobos-Grunt repeat mission might be restarted for a launch approximately in 2024.
[82]
[83]
In August 2015, the
ESA
-
Roscosmos
working group on post-
ExoMars
cooperation, completed a joint study for a possible future Phobos sample return mission, preliminary discussions were held,
[84]
[85]
and in May 2015 the Russian Academy of Sciences submitted a budget proposal.
[84]
[86]
Roscosmos is also currently studying a proposal for an international
Mars sample return mission
called
Mars-Grunt
,
[87]
[88]
to take place by 2026.
[
citation needed
]
This Mars sample-return mission would be developed from the technologies demonstrated by Fobos-Grunt 2.
[86]
Objectives
[
edit
]
Fobos-Grunt was an intended interplanetary probe that included a lander to study Phobos and a sample return vehicle to return a sample of about 200 g (7.1 oz) of soil to
Earth
.
[1]
It was also to study Mars from orbit, including its
atmosphere
and dust storms, plasma and radiation.
- Science goals
- Delivery of samples of Phobos soil to Earth for scientific research of Phobos, Mars and Martian vicinity;
- In situ
and remote studies of Phobos (to include analysis of soil samples);
- Monitoring the atmospheric behavior of Mars, including the dynamics of dust storms;
- Studies of the vicinity of Mars, including its radiation environment,
plasma
and dust;
[19]
- Study of the origin of the Martian moons and their relation to Mars;
- Study of the role played by asteroid impacts in the formation of terrestrial planets;
- Search for possible past or present life (
biosignatures
);
[89]
- Study of the impact of a three-year interplanetary round-trip journey on
extremophile
microorganisms in a small sealed capsule (
LIFE experiment
).
[90]
Payload
[
edit
]
- TV system for navigation and guidance (TSNN)
[91]
- Gas Analysis Package:
[92]
- Thermal Differential Analyzer (TDA)
- Gas-Chromatograph (KhMS-1F)
- Mass-Spectrometer (MAL-1F)
- Gamma ray spectrometer (FOGS)
[93]
- Neutron spectrometer (KhEND)
[93]
- Laser Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometer (LAZMA)
- Mossbauer Spectrometer (MIMOS-II)
- Thermal Detector (TERMO-FOB)
- Fourier Spectrometer (AOST)
- Echelle Spectrometer (TIMM)
- Seismogravimeter (GRAS-F)
- Seismometer (SEISMO)
[93]
- Long-wave radar (DPR)
[93]
- Visible and near-infrared microscopes (MicrOmega)
[93]
- Dust counter (Meteor-F)
[93]
- Dosimeter (Liulin-F)
- Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometer (MANAGA-F)
[93]
- Optical solar & star sensor (LIBRATsIYa)
[94]
- Plasma Complex (FPMS)
- Fluxgate magnetometer (DFM)
- Inductive magnetic sensor (KVD)
- Ion mass spectrometer (DIM)
- Ion mass spectrometer (DI)
- Ultrastable Oscillator (USO1)
- Ionospheric parameters experiment together with Yinghuo-1 (YH-1) spacecraft (MROE)
- BioPhobos/Anabioz
- BioPhobos/LIFE (Living Interplanetary Flight Experiment)
Mass summary
[
edit
]
Spacecraft components
|
Mass
|
Lander sample capsule
|
7 kg (15 lb)
|
Earth return vehicle (tot.):
|
287 kg (633 lb)
|
-Propellant
(for trans-Earth injection maneuvers)
|
139 kg (306 lb)
|
-Dry mass
|
148 kg (326 lb)
|
Orbiter/lander instrument compartment
|
550 kg (1,210 lb)
|
Orbiter/lander (tot.):
|
1,270 kg (2,800 lb)
|
-Propellant
(for Phobos rendezvous and landing)
|
1,058 kg (2,332 lb)
|
-Dry mass
|
212 kg (467 lb)
|
Phobos-Grunt/Yinghuo/MPU truss adapter
|
150 kg (330 lb)
|
"Yinghuo 1" subsatellite
|
115 kg (254 lb)
|
Main propulsion unit (MPU) stage
, excluding external propellant tank:
|
7,750 kg (17,090 lb)
|
-Propellant
(for trans-Mars injection burn and initial 800 km × 75,900 km (500 mi × 47,160 mi) Mars orbit insertion)
|
7,015 kg (15,465 lb)
|
-Dry mass
|
735 kg (1,620 lb)
|
External propellant tank:
|
3,376 kg (7,443 lb)
|
-Propellant
(for 250 km × 4,710 km (160 mi × 2,930 mi) Earth parking orbit insertion)
|
3,001 kg (6,616 lb)
|
-Dry mass
|
375 kg (827 lb)
|
Total mass
|
13,505 kg (29,773 lb)
[2]
|
Mission plan
[
edit
]
Journey
[
edit
]
The spacecraft's journey to Mars would take about ten months. After arriving in Mars orbit, the main propulsion unit and the transfer truss would separate and the Chinese Mars orbiter would be released. Fobos-Grunt would then spend several months studying the planet and its moons from orbit, before landing on
Phobos
. It was imperative to prevent the introduction to Mars of contaminants from Earth; according to Fobos-Grunt Chief Designer
Maksim Martynov
, the probability of the probe accidentally reaching the surface of Mars was much lower than the maximum specified for Category III missions, the type assigned to Fobos-Grunt and defined in
COSPAR
's
planetary protection
policy (in accordance with
Article IX
of the Outer Space Treaty).
[95]
[96]
On Phobos
[
edit
]
The planned landing site at Phobos was a region from 5°S to 5°N, 230° to 235°E.
[97]
Soil sample collection would begin immediately after the lander touched down on Phobos, with collection lasting 2?7 days. An emergency mode existed for the case of communications breakdown, which enabled the lander to automatically launch the return rocket to deliver the samples to Earth.
[98]
A robotic arm would have collected samples up to 1.3 cm (0.51 in) in diameter. At the end of the arm was a pipe-shaped tool which split to form a claw. The tool contained a piston which would have pushed the sample into a cylindrical container. A light-sensitive photo-diode would have confirmed whether material collection was successful and also allowed visual inspection of the digging area. The sample extraction device would have performed 15 to 20 scoops yielding a total of 85 to 156 g (3.0 to 5.5 oz) of soil.
[98]
The samples would be loaded into a capsule which would then be moved inside a special pipeline into the descent module by inflating an elastic bag within the pipe with gas.
[95]
Because the characteristics of Phobos soil are uncertain, the lander included another soil-extraction device, a Polish-built drill, which would have been used in case the soil turned out to be too rocky for the main scooping device.
[12]
[36]
After the departure of the return stage, the lander's experiments would have continued
in situ
on Phobos' surface for a year. To conserve power, mission control would have turned these on and off in a precise sequence. The robotic arm would have placed more samples in a chamber that would heat it and analyze its
emission spectra
. This analysis might have been able to determine the presence of volatile compounds, such as water.
[98]
Sample return to Earth
[
edit
]
The return stage was mounted on top of the lander. It would have needed to accelerate to 35 km/h (22 mph) to escape Phobos' gravity. In order to avoid harming the experiments remaining at the lander, the return stage would have ignited its engine once the vehicle had been vaulted to a safe height by springs. It would then have begun maneuvers for the eventual trip to Earth, where it would have arrived in August 2014.
[98]
An 11-kg descent vehicle containing the capsule with soil samples (up to 0.2 kg (0.44 lb)) would have been released on direct approach to Earth at 12 km/s (7.5 mi/s).
[92]
Following the aerodynamic braking to 30 m/s (98 ft/s) the conical descent vehicle would perform a hard landing without a parachute within the
Sary Shagan
test range in
Kazakhstan
.
[95]
[99]
The vehicle did not have any radio equipment.
[12]
Ground-based radar and optical observations would have been used to track the vehicle's return.
[100]
Summary of intended mission phases
[
edit
]
Event
|
Date
|
Notes
[2]
|
Departure from Earth orbit
|
28 October ? 21 November 2011
|
Three course corrections of up to 130 m/s
delta V
foreseen during Earth-Mars cruise
|
Mars arrival
|
25 August ? 26 September 2012
|
945 m/s braking burn to enter initial Mars parting orbit with
periapsis
= 800 ± 400 km,
apoapsis
= 79,000 km and period of three days. Propulsion module and Yinghuo-1 separates from the rest of the craft.
|
Transfer to intermediate Mars orbit
|
October ? December 2012
|
220 m/s engine burn to raise periapsis to 6499 km, changing the orbital period to 3.3 days and the
orbital inclination
to that of Phobos.
|
Transfer to Phobos observation orbit
|
December 2012
|
705 m/s engine burn to insert the craft into an early circular orbit with an average radius of 9910 km, i.e. about 535 km above Phobos orbit, and orbital period = 8.3 h.
|
Rendezvous with Phobos
|
January 2013
|
45 m/s + 20 m/s engine burns for transfer to quasi-synchronous orbit where the probe always remains within 50..140 km of Phobos.
|
Phobos landing and surface activities
|
End of January ? beginning of April 2013
|
Landing maneuver takes two hours (100 m/s delta V trajectory changes).
|
Separation of Earth return vehicle (ERV) from lander
|
April 2013
|
10 m/s + 20 m/s trajectory change to enter parking orbit 300?350 km lower than Phobos with a period of 7.23 hours.
|
ERV transfer orbit
|
Starting in August 2013
|
740 m/s periapsis burn for insertion into 3-day elliptical transfer orbit.
|
ERV pre orbit insertion
|
Mid-August 2013
|
125 m/s burn to change the inclination of the orbit while decreasing the periapsis distance to 500?1000 km above the martian surface.
|
ERV trans-Earth injection burn
|
3?23 September 2013
|
Final 790 m/s engine burn to accelerate out of Mars orbit.
|
ERV Earth arrival
|
15?18 August 2014
|
Up to five trajectory corrections (combined delta V < 130 m/s) would be performed before atmospheric entry.
|
Ground control
[
edit
]
The
mission control center
was located at the
Center for Deep Space Communications
(
Национальный центр управления и испытаний космических средств
(in Russian)
, equipped with
RT-70 radio telescope
near
Yevpatoria
in
Crimea
.
[101]
Russia
and
Ukraine
agreed in late October 2010 that the
European Space Operations Centre
in
Darmstadt
, Germany, would have controlled the probe.
[102]
Communications with the spacecraft on the initial parking orbit are described in a two-volume publication.
[103]
Scientific critiques
[
edit
]
Barry E. DiGregorio, Director of the
International Committee Against Mars Sample Return
(ICAMSR), criticised the
LIFE experiment
carried by Fobos-Grunt as a violation of the
Outer Space Treaty
due to the possibility of contamination of Phobos or Mars with the microbial spores and live bacteria it contains should it have lost control and crash-landed on either body.
[104]
It is speculated that the heat-resistant extremophile bacteria could survive such a crash, on the basis that
Microbispora
bacteria survived the
Space Shuttle Columbia disaster
.
[105]
According to Fobos-Grunt Chief Designer
Maksim Martynov
, the probability of the probe accidentally reaching the surface of Mars was much lower than the maximum specified for Category III missions, the type assigned to Fobos-Grunt and defined in
COSPAR
's
planetary protection
policy (in accordance with
Article IX
of the Outer Space Treaty).
[95]
[96]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
Fobos-Grunt sent to Baikonur
Archived
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cite news
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link
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2006Icar..181..323M
.
doi
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.
PMC
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.
PMID
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.
Further reading
[
edit
]
- M. Ya. Marov, V. S. Avduevsky, E. L. Akim, T. M. Eneev, R. S. Kremnev, S. D. Kulikov, K. M. Pichkhadze, G. A. Popov, G. N. Rogovsky; Avduevsky; Akim; Eneev; Kremnev; Kulikov; Pichkhadze; Popov; Rogovsky (2004). "Phobos-Grunt: Russian sample return mission".
Advances in Space Research
.
33
(12): 2276?2280.
Bibcode
:
2004AdSpR..33.2276M
.
doi
:
10.1016/S0273-1177(03)00515-5
.
{{
cite journal
}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (
link
)
- Galimov, E. M. (2010). "Phobos sample return mission: Scientific substantiation".
Solar System Research
.
44
(1): 5?14.
Bibcode
:
2010SoSyR..44....5G
.
doi
:
10.1134/S0038094610010028
.
S2CID
124416846
.
- Zelenyi, L. M.; Zakharov, A. V. (2010). "Phobos-Grunt project: Devices for scientific studies".
Solar System Research
.
44
(5): 359.
Bibcode
:
2010SoSyR..44..359Z
.
doi
:
10.1134/S0038094610050011
.
S2CID
121719627
.
- Rodionov, D. S.; Klingelhoefer, G.; Evlanov, E. N.; Blumers, M.; Bernhardt, B.; Girones, J.; Maul, J.; Fleischer, I.; et al. (2010). "The miniaturized Moessbauer spectrometer MIMOS II for the Phobos-Grunt mission".
Solar System Research
.
44
(5): 362.
Bibcode
:
2010SoSyR..44..362R
.
doi
:
10.1134/S0038094610050023
.
S2CID
122144645
.
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edit
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