Phobos-Grunt |
Phobos-Grunt |
Jan 22 2005, 02:15 PM
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#1
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Interplanetary Dumpster Diver Group: Admin Posts: 4404 Joined: 17-February 04 From: Powell, TN Member No.: 33 |
In Astronomy's February issue, they report that Russia has approved funding for the Phobos-Grunt mission. Design work has gone on since 1997, and the new design is scaled down to fly an a Soyuz rocket instead of the larger Proton. The main purpose is similar to Phobos-2, with the addition of a sample return. Also being discussed is the possibility of it carrying a few "meteorological stations" fof Mars itself. Generally, I have written this mission off as "never going to happen," but with the new Russian alliance with ESA, I wonder if they might be able to actually fly this thing. Also, with Putin's increasingly Soviet-style leadership, and with the likelyhood of lunar missions from China and India, Russian pride might drive this mission. If so, I have a concern. This mission sounds really, really ambitious. And the Russians have never even sent a fully successful Mars orbiter, and that is when they launched them in pairs or triplets. Still, if the mission flies, even if it doesn't bring back Phobos soil it might obtain some interesting results. Here is ESA's Phobos-Grunt page:
http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/ESA_Permanent_...IJFW4QWD_0.html Also, ESA has another page on potential Russian programs, although this seem to be nothing but pipe dreams at the moment. Would be a cool mission though. http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/ESA_Permanent_...0LFW4QWD_0.html And also a page on the only partially realized current Russian project, its program to put instruments on other's spacecraft, such as HEND on Odyssey. http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/ESA_Permanent_...HMFW4QWD_0.html -------------------- |
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Nov 24 2011, 04:09 AM
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Senior Member Group: Admin Posts: 4763 Joined: 15-March 05 From: Glendale, AZ Member No.: 197 |
From the Nasaspaceflight article:
QUOTE as far as the potential recovery efforts, it is unlikely the spacecraft can be sent on its primary mission to Phobos, given its window of opportunity has now elapsed – at least from a complete mission standpoint. Last week we were hearing "early December" as the close of the mission window. As has been the case since the launch we are getting a wide range of "authoritative" statements, many of them conflicting. Can someone pin down the drop-dead full-burn date definitively? -------------------- If Occam had heard my theory, things would be very different now.
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Nov 24 2011, 04:31 AM
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#3
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Member Group: Members Posts: 507 Joined: 10-September 08 Member No.: 4338 |
Can someone pin down the drop-dead full-burn date definitively? It might depend on how creative they can get. [Edit: Saw this link in a comment elsewhere: http://www.universetoday.com/91239/contact...-on/#more-91239 It discusses possible "saves" of the mission] |
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