http://www.marsnews.com/ en-us tourdemars@marsnews.com Copyright 2012 Sun, 15 Jan 2012 16:19:46 -0800 Sun, 15 Jan 2012 17:16:28 -0800 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.2 tourdemars@marsnews.com 60 Somewhere, probably in the southern Pacific between New Zealand and South America, the failed Russian Phobos-Grunt Mars probe returned ignominiously to Earth today, said the Russian space agency Roscosmos and the U.S. Space Command. The agencies said they believed the ship reentered the atmosphere shortly before 1 p.m. ET. http://www.marsnews.com/archives/2012/01/15/phobosgrunt_failed_russian_mars_probe_falls_to_earth.html Phobos-Grunt Sun, 15 Jan 2012 16:19:46 -0800 Russia's space agency on Sunday called off all predictions of the likely crash site of its ill-fated Mars probe only hours before the 13.5-tonne spacecraft was due to begin its fatal descent. Roscosmos said on its website that fragments of the stranded Phobos-Grunt voyager would probably fall to Earth on Sunday between 1436 GMT and 2224 GMT. But it cancelled its Saturday forecast of the debris splashing down in the Pacific off the western coast of Chile. Two earlier updates had the fragments falling into the Indian and Atlantic Oceans. "The operations support group is keeping continuous watch of the Phobos-Grunt spacecraft's descent from orbit," the brief Roscosmos statement said. The unmanned $165 million vessel -- stuck in orbit since its November 9 launch -- will be one of the largest objects to re-enter the atmosphere since Russia brought down the Soviet-era Mir space station in 2001. http://www.marsnews.com/archives/2012/01/15/failed_russia_mars_probe_set_to_crash_today.html Phobos-Grunt Sun, 15 Jan 2012 00:01:42 -0800 Doomed Russian Phobos-Grunt Mars probe that's been stuck in Earth orbit for two months may finally come crashing down on January 15 over the Pasific Ocean, Russia’s space agency Roscosmos said on Saturday. Roscosmos said the spacecraft will fall within the eight-hour interval starting from 18:36 on Sunday Moscow time [14:36 GMT] to 2:24 on Monday [22:24 Sunday GMT]. The possible scatter zone is 51.4 degrees North latitude to 51.4 degrees South latitude. As of 20.30 Saturday, the spacecraft was moving in the near-Earth orbit with an altitude that varied between 144.6 km at perigee and 167.1 km at apogee, the Russian space agency said. According to the latest report from the U.S. Strategic Command, the failed probe would hit Earth's atmosphere between 17:26 Moscow time Sunday [13:26] and 03:02 Moscow time Monday [23:02 Sunday GMT]. It puts the altitude at between 138.1 km at perigee and 160.2 km at apogee. http://www.marsnews.com/archives/2012/01/14/reports_vary_about_failed_russian_mars_probes_reentry_time.html Phobos-Grunt Sat, 14 Jan 2012 21:01:42 -0800 A doomed Russian Mars probe that's been stuck in Earth orbit for two months may finally come crashing down Sunday over the Indian Ocean, Russian space officials say. The 14.5-ton Phobos-Grunt spacecraft should fall back to Earth between Saturday and Monday (Jan. 14 to Jan. 16), Russia's Federal Space Agency, known as Roscosmos, announced in a statement Wednesday. If Phobos-Grunt comes down at the "central point" in that window — 5:18 a.m. EST on Sunday — it will fall over a stretch of empty ocean west of the Indonesian island of Java, according to a re-entry projection map Roscosmos published with the update. http://www.marsnews.com/archives/2012/01/12/failed_russian_mars_probe_may_fall_to_earth_on_sunday.html Phobos-Grunt Thu, 12 Jan 2012 22:50:42 -0800 A Russian scientific spacecraft whizzing out of control around the Earth, and expected to re-enter the atmosphere on Saturday, may have failed because it was struck by some type of antisatellite weapon, the director of Russia’s space agency said in an interview published Tuesday. He did not say who would want to interfere with the spacecraft, which was intended to explore a moon of Mars. Russia has not succeeded in sending a spacecraft to Mars since the 1980s. An attempt in 1996 to launch a Mars lander that could burrow below the planet’s surface failed because of a flaw in the rocket that carried it. Phobos-Grunt, which took about five years to build and cost $160 million at current exchange rates, was launched from the Baikonur spaceport in Kazakhstan on Nov. 9; it also carried a small Chinese Mars orbiter. http://www.marsnews.com/archives/2012/01/12/russian_official_suggests_weapon_caused_exploration_spacecrafts_failure.html Phobos-Grunt Thu, 12 Jan 2012 22:30:42 -0800 The failed Russian Mars probe Phobos-Grunt has been pictured moving across the sky by the Paris-based amateur astronomer Thierry Legault. The spacecraft is seen moving left to right in the video. The bulbous shape of its fuel tanks and its outstretched solar panels are easily discernable. Mr Legault uses a sophisticated telescopic tracking system and captured similar imagery of Nasa's defunct UARS satellite last year. Phobos-Grunt is falling to Earth. It is expected to re-enter the atmosphere in the next 8-9 days and burn up. http://www.marsnews.com/archives/2012/01/07/video_tracks_stricken_mars_probe.html Phobos-Grunt Sat, 07 Jan 2012 11:50:50 -0800 Russia’s Phobos-Grunt spacecraft bound for Mars and stuck in an orbit around Earth will fall in southwestern Afghanistan on January 14, the U.S. Strategic Command said on Monday. Phobos-Grunt, Russia's most ambitious planetary mission in decades, was launched on November 9 but it was lost due to propulsion failure and is expected to fall back to Earth next month. http://www.marsnews.com/archives/2011/12/26/russias_lost_phobosgrunt_to_fall_in_afghanistan_us_military.html Phobos-Grunt Mon, 26 Dec 2011 17:18:21 -0800 Members of the House Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics expressed frustration at a hearing last month about what they and a prominent planetary scientist charged was the Obama Administration’s lack of commitment to two missions to Mars in 2016 and 2018. A senior NASA official testified that the Administration’s decision about these missions would be announced with the release of NASA’s FY 2013 budget request in early February. Subcommittee Chairman Steven Palazzo (R-MS) aptly summarized the situation in his opening remarks when he said “The conundrum now facing NASA is selecting a mission that is the next logical step in our exploration of Mars, and how to pay for it.” As is true for many of NASA’s current and future programs, money is largely the limiting factor. http://www.marsnews.com/archives/2011/12/14/administration_to_announce_decision_on_mars_missions_in_february.html Budget Wed, 14 Dec 2011 19:50:13 -0800 Nasa’s most advanced mobile robotic laboratory, which will examine one of the most intriguing areas on Mars, is in final preparations for a launch from Florida's Space Coast on November 25. The Mars Science Laboratory mission will carry Curiosity, a rover with more scientific capability than any ever sent to another planet. It will set down inside a huge crater and use its highly advanced instruments, including cameras and lasers, to find out more about the planet’s environment, which will help pave the way for human missions. Doug McCuistion, director of the Mars Exploration Program at Nasa Headquarters in Washington, said: ‘Mars Science Laboratory builds upon the improved understanding about Mars gained from current and recent missions. ‘This mission advances technologies and science that will move us toward missions to return samples from, and eventually send humans to, Mars.’ http://www.marsnews.com/archives/2011/11/14/mission_to_mars_nasa_gears_up_to_send_robotic_laboratory_and_laserarmed_rover_to_red_planet.html Mars Science Laboratory Mon, 14 Nov 2011 14:32:03 -0800 Russia’s exploration of the Red Planet following the failed Mars 96 mission and is currently scheduled to head to space just weeks prior to this year’s other Mars mission – namely NASA’s next Mars rover, the Curiosity Mars Science Laboratory (MSL). Blastoff of Phobos-Grunt may come as early as around Nov. 5 to Nov. 8 atop a Russian Zenit 3-F rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The launch window extends until about Nov. 25. Elements of the spacecraft are undergoing final prelaunch testing at Baikonur. “November will see the launch of the Phobos-Grunt interplanetary automatic research station aimed at delivering samples of the Martian natural satellite’s soil to Earth’” said Vladimir Popovkin, head of the Russian Federal Space Agency, speaking recently at a session of the State Duma according to the Voice of Russia, a Russian government news agency http://www.marsnews.com/archives/2011/10/14/daring_russian_sample_return_mission_to_martian_moon_phobos_aims_for_november_liftoff.html Sample Return Fri, 14 Oct 2011 11:04:15 -0800 Russian scientists are now testing the unmanned international station “Phobos-Grunt” – for the last time before launching it to one of Mars’s moons, Phobos, on November 5. The station will take samples of Phobos’s ground and bring them to the Earth. http://www.marsnews.com/archives/2011/08/16/russians_to_explore_marss_moons_soil.html Sample Return Tue, 16 Aug 2011 22:24:33 -0800 Space officials in the United States and Europe are planning an ambitious dual-rover mission that could start collecting Martian soil samples in 2018 to be picked up by a subsequent mission and returned to Earth in the 2020s. The costly mission would blast off on an Atlas 5 rocket in 2018 and land two rovers on Mars with a single "sky crane" descent system that will be tested for the first time at the Red Planet in August 2012. It would be the first time two rovers will be delivered to the same landing site on Mars. The European Space Agency's ExoMars rover and a $2 billion NASA Mars Astrobiology Explorer-Cacher mission are the leading candidates for the tandem project. http://www.marsnews.com/archives/2010/07/20/mars_sample_return_mission_could_begin_in_2018.html Sample Return Tue, 20 Jul 2010 14:05:28 -0800 If a Japanese space capsule that recently returned to Earth is found to have collected particles from a billion-year-old space rock, it will join the short history of lucrative sample-return missions. Retrieving samples from space is considered more complicated, potentially more costly, and riskier than conducting remote or robotic expeditions, but successful retrievals can confirm or disprove theories more accurately and can fuel or accelerate decades of scientific research. As researchers and mission scientists await an analysis of what the plucky Hayabusa asteroid probe has brought back from space, they say previous sample-return missions have proven their usefulness. And, with improvements in technology and in methods of cleaning and sterilizing storage facilities, future missions to retrieve samples from Mars and beyond could provide even more valuable insights into the unknowns of our solar system. http://www.marsnews.com/archives/2010/07/20/to_researchers_space_samples_are_well_worth_the_cost_of_fetching.html Sample Return Tue, 20 Jul 2010 14:03:16 -0800 We've landed the robots, puttered about on the planet's surface, and, at long last, found the water. Now, NASA is getting back to basics on Mars with a plan to once again search for signs of life on the Red Planet, a focus that's been on the back burner since the 1976 Viking missions. But this time, NASA doesn't want to analyze Mars from Mars. This time the space agency wants to bring samples back home, and has a cleverly orchestrated scheme to do it. NASA thinks the acquisition and return of Martian rock and soil samples is completely doable, but it's going to be a costly three-phase process, probably with a price tag totaling some $10 billion. And since the federal government isn't exactly showering NASA with cash, the agency recently teamed with its European counterpart to map out the details of such a complex mission. http://www.marsnews.com/archives/2010/05/20/carefully_choreographed_nasaesa_mission_could_return_martian_soil_samples_to_earth.html Sample Return Thu, 20 May 2010 11:11:28 -0800 Any proof that there’s life on Mars is still non-existent. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) agency of the U.S. government has made a statement to that effect in answer to the sensational article in the British tabloid newspaper “The Sun”, saying that the Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, have allegedly found a biological substance similar to a bog. It is really not very important whether purposefully or simply wrongly interpreting the NASA reports, the author of the publication in the daily tabloid newspaper “The Sun” deceived its readers. In any case, everybody, as before, is interested to know whether there is life on Mars. New arguments have appeared in the dispute over the presence of primitive life on Mars. Scientists have proved that there’re bacteria on the Earth, which can live under extreme conditions, similar to the conditions existing on Planet Mars. This provides us sufficient grounds to reconsider the results of the experiments, which denied the existence of life on Mars. http://www.marsnews.com/archives/2010/05/11/planet_mars_searching_for_life_continues.html Life on Mars Tue, 11 May 2010 09:15:26 -0800