Russian mission to Martian moon suffers major setback
NOV 09, 2011
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.025693
Space.com : Despite a successful launch yesterday , Russia’s Phobos-Grunt spacecraft is stuck in Earth orbit after its thrusters failed to fire and send it on toward Mars. Engineers now have about three days to figure out what went wrong and fix the problem. After that time, Phobos-Grunt‘s batteries will run out and the spacecraft will become just another piece of space debris orbiting Earth. China also has a stake in the venture because its first Mars probe, Yinghuo 1, is attached to Phobos-Grunt. This is Russia’s third attempt to send a probe to the Martian moons; the other two missions, launched by the USSR in the 1980s, ended in failure .
© 2011 American Institute of Physics
