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

[SiberianTiger]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...nd-170m-Russian-Mars-probe-Pacific-Ocean.html

Alexander Zakharov, a specialist at the Space Research Institute, which developed the Phobos-Ground, called the suggestion 'contrived' and doubted the United States has radar powerful enough to interfere with a spacecraft at an altitude of around 200 kilometers (124 miles).


'You can come up with a lot of exotic reasons, but first you need to look at the apparatus itself, and there is a problem there,' Mr Zakharov told RIA Novosti.

http://english.ruvr.ru/2012/01/18/64081116.html

US radar couldn't down Phobos-Grunt - NASA
Jan 18, 2012 12:42 Moscow Time

NASA has rejected the assumption that a powerful radar of a US station on the Marshall Islands may have accidentally downed the Russian Phobos-Grunt Mars probe.

The NASA official Bob Jacobs said the radar was not used to monitor asteroids on the day when Russia launched its probe, - November 9th .

Earlier, a source in the Russian space rocket industry did not rule out that the Phobos’s electronics could develop malfunction if and when affected by a megawatt impulse from the US radar station.

Phobos failed to reach the computed path to Mars for reasons that have so far been unclear, with the wreckage falling into the Pacific on the 15th of this month.

(TASS)

 

[Yoda]

It's called "passing the buck" here; blaming somebody else for your own inadequate design...................
Next time spend more time on quality control !

 

[SiberianTiger]

It's called "passing the buck" here; blaming somebody else for your own inadequate design...................
Next time spend more time on quality control !

Not credible for anyone in Russia who understands how things work in space a little bit. But alas, the idea is much appealing for uneducated mass, and I'm very sorry it was thrown by Roscosmos head to the masses through media. That's not just wrong doing, that's evil doing.

 

[Thunder Chicken]

Not credible for anyone in Russia who understands how things work in space a little bit. But alas, the idea is much appealing for uneducated mass, and I'm very sorry it was thrown by Roscosmos head to the masses through media. That's not just wrong doing, that's evil doing.

This is what a broken organization does to garner popular support to save itself. They keep projecting a false but comfortable story with mass appeal that alters the ability of the leadership to disturb the status quo. Our Congress has mastered this art form.

 

[orb]

SPACE.com: Is the US Military Hiding Data on Dead Russian Mars Probe?

 

[orb]

ESA: Space debris experts confirm estimate for Phobos–Grunt reentry:

25 January 2012

Before the reentry of Russia’s Phobos–Grunt Mars probe on 15 January, ESA established a final prediction for reentry of 17:45 GMT, referring to an altitude of 10 km. Within the expected uncertainties, the prediction has been largely confirmed by observations.

Refining the reentry estimates

Following the 15 January Phobos–Grunt reentry, the US Strategic Command confirmed a reentry time of 17:46 GMT, referring to an altitude of 80 km at 46°S and 87°W, near the South American coastline. This corresponds to a pass at 10 km altitude about seven minutes later – very close to ESA’s prediction.

“While this was an uncontrolled reentry, the location of the potential impact area was largely over ocean, with a correspondingly low probability of any detrimental effects,” said Prof. Heiner Klinkrad, Head of ESA’s Space Debris Office in Darmstadt, Germany.

{...}

Universe Today: Few Details in ESA’s Report on Phobos-Grunt Re-Entry

SPACE.com: Failed Mars Probe Crashed Near South America Coast, Space Junk Experts Say

 

[SiberianTiger]

http://www.russkiymir.ru/russkiymir/en/news/common/news5540.html

Russian Scientist Keep Hopes Alive for Successful Probe Launch to Phobos
Jan 25, 2012

The Lavochkin Scientific and Production Association and the Russian Academy of Sciences hope to send another interplanetary spacecraft to Phobos after the failure of the first mission, ITAR-TASS reports.

Director-general and designer-general of the Lavochkin scientific centre Viktor Khartov, speaking at academic hearings on cosmonautics on Tuesday, said that they hoped the work to correct the errors would be done and another attempt would be made to carry out the mission. "Russia must solve the very difficult problem," he added.

The unsuccessful Phobos-Grunt mission is a tragedy for the centre, the director-general said. "We attempted to make a jump across 30 years. For the purpose, absolutely new decisions were gathered without flight experience,” Khartov noted. According to him, the Phobos-Grunt automated interplanetary station, in essence, was a sum of three craft.

The failure violated the logic of other projects based on the mission. "The jump across 30 years was unsuccessful," he admitted. A commission is working to investigate what caused the failure. The commission consists of good specialists. "In any case, we are grateful to them, as their independent examination is very useful for our work," Khartov said. "It is a pity that the work was not done before the launch,” he added.

Director the Institute of Space Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) Academician Lev Zeleny is also in favor of another launch. “A major amount of work was done for the project, scientists and designers have done a huge amount of work and introduced innovations. We cannot refuse from all these developments over the Phobos-Grunt failure,” Zeleny said.

The tasks of a new mission should remain the same as for the abortive interplanetary station Phobos-Grunt. “The station should get to Phobos, take ground samples and bring them to the Earth,” Zeleny said. However, a new station should be less sophisticated, he said. “The Phobos project will keep the main elements, but we will seek to make it simpler. The station should be unloaded slightly,” the scientist noted.

However, no decision was taken about a new experiment. “No decision was taken about the preparations for a new launch,” Zeleny said. “We intend to deliver a new spaceship to the Mars. We have some possibilities to do this. But certainly this will require some money,” he said.

The scientist noted that the decision about a next mission should be made already this year for the mission to be made in 2018.

Does Zelyony think there's a Monolith buried at Phobos?

 

[N_Molson]

I suggest that Roskosmos focuses on something simpler but more realistic for now, like a lunar orbital satellite (like Grail 1/2)... It would probably allow to build some experience with current materials, not soviet relics kept "ready to launch" in a warehouse for 20 years.

 

[SiberianTiger]

As I understand the current situation, Roscosmos would be happy to do cheaper and faster interplanetary missions, but the Academy of Science insist on more complex and innovative missions. Kind of the same clash that exists between Ministry of Defense and the clusters of Defense-oriented enterprises: like MoD wants the Army equipment like the USA have, Academy wants interplanetary probes like the USA have.

Which their counterparts can't provide.

 

[SiberianTiger]

http://rt.com/news/line/2012-01-26/#id25543

Phobos-Grunt failure most likely linked to plasma formation

A commission investigating the main reasons behind the failure of the Phobos-Grunt Martian probe has presented the results of its inquiry to the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos). Interfax on Thursday quoted a source in the space industry as saying that “the station was most likely influenced by a plasma formation in the Earth’s magnetosphere.” The dates of the Phobos-Grunt launch (November 9) and of the powerful X-class solar flare (November 4) had been analyzed. The abnormal solar activity had continued for ten days. It could have effected the functioning of the Phobos-Grunt probe, the commission concluded.

 

[NovaSilisko]

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.

A bit late for me to reply, but I had meant that the telemetry being interrupted might have been what killed the probe.

 

[SiberianTiger]

A bit late for me to reply, but I had meant that the telemetry being interrupted might have been what killed the probe.

Telemetry is a transmission of space vehicle's state variables and working parameters to a receiving station, usually done via a radio channel. How might interrupting one kill anything?

 

[NovaSilisko]

Telemetry is a transmission of space vehicle's state variables and working parameters to a receiving station, usually done via a radio channel. How might interrupting one kill anything?

Oh, I had it backwards. I was thinking it was the uplink of commands and data TO the spacecraft, rather than a downlink FROM the spacecraft (that, or both ways). I had the idea that it could have been a part in the software that really didn't like when the uplink was broken.

 

[SiberianTiger]

http://en.gazeta.ru/news/2012/01/26/a_3976013.shtml

Phobos-Grunt: Burnt by the sun
26.01.12 20:53

The newest culprit for the death of the research probe "Phobos-Grunt" might be the sun. On launch day, powerful flares coming from the Sun set off a magnetic storm in near-Earth space. Scientists, however, deny this version. Roscosmos promises to make public the final results of investigations into the causes of the accident "Phobos-Grunt" next week.


The Russian spacecraft was the victim of anomalous solar activity, says the source. What happened can be considered a "tragic accident". "The Commission, having considered possible reasons for the failure of the" Phobos-Grunt", agreed that the main cause was the effect of plasma on the spacecraft while it was in the Earth's magnetosphere," said "Interfax"'s source in the space industry. According to him, the commission compared the launch date of the "Phobos-Grunt" (November 9, 2011) and the flare with powerful coronal mass ejection (November 4).the ejection weighed several billion tons and caused a series of magnetic storms, which continued over a few weeks.


A scientist from the Institute of Earth magnetism, ionosphere and radiowaves propagation named after Nikolay Pushkov of the Russian Academy of Sciences disagrees. "This is impossible. Such plasmatic effects could appear at certain heights, they are usually less in order of magnitude (than necessary to influence the probe in any way). This is totally impossible," says professor Marat Deminov.


Earlier the head of Russian Space Agency (Roscosmos) Vladimir Popovkin supposed Phobos fell because of American radar station interference.

Saying so sounds like a ship sank because of getting wet in the water. :facepalm:

 

[Scav]

Agreed. How can an interplanetary probe survive interplanetary space if it can't survive an anomalous event inside Earth's SOI?

Conclusion: We can only operate interplanetary missions during solar minimum?

 

[SiberianTiger]

One say yes.

http://zeenews.india.com/news/space/russian-mars-probe-failure-reason-identified_755903.html

Russian Mars probe failure reason identified

Moscow: A government commission has blamed Russian programmers for the recent failure of Russia's Phobos-Grunt Mars probe, the Kommersant daily said Tuesday citing a space industry source.

The commission, which submitted its final report to the head of Russia's Federal Space Agency Vladimir Popovkin late Monday, concluded that the main cause of the failure was "a programming error which led to a simultaneous reboot of two working channels of an onboard computer".

Russian Mars probe failure reason identified
Investigators have ruled out any "external or foreign influence" on the spacecraft, including the alleged emissions from a US radar in the Pacific Ocean.

"The US radar theory was deemed ungrounded after a series of tests showed that the electronics similar to those onboard the Phobos-Grunt had withstood the highest possible level of electromagnetic radiation," the Kommersant source said.

The report will be presented to Russia's new Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who oversees the probe.

BTW, Rogozin, Overseer of The Probe. :rofl::rofl::rofl:

But others say no.

http://english.ruvr.ru/2012/01/31/64994581.html

No proof of Phobos-Grunt software failure

Ground testing has found no proof of software failure in the Russian Mars probe, Phobos-Grunt. This is reported by the RIA-Novosti news agency with reference to a source in the Russian space rocket industry. The source was commenting on today’s report by the Kommersant daily that the commission to inquire into the circumstances of the accident said the most likely cause of it was onboard software failure.

After Phobos-Grunt was launched on November 9th, it failed to switch on the power plant and enter the trajectory to travel to Mars. Other reasons for the failed mission were said to be US radar emission and solar activity.

(RIAN)

Or it might mean, a software failure might be there, but nobody still really knows for sure.

 

[N_Molson]

They should get back to work instead of building unbelievable conspiracy theories. There is a lot to do !

 

[orb]

RIA Novosti: Space Radiation Blamed for Phobos-Grunt Crash

Parabolic Arc: Russia Blames Radiation for Loss of Phobos-Grunt Spacecraft

Universe Today: Phobos-Grunt Failure Due to Computer Problems, Cosmic Rays

Discovery News: Cosmic Rays Probably Killed Russian Mars Probe

The Planetary Society Blog: Official Phobos-Grunt Failure Report Released

 

[SiberianTiger]

They could not reproduce the suspected software/hardware failure state at the test rig, so here we are: cosmic radiation and unrated chips.

 

[Evil_Onyx]

This so called investigation into Phobos-Grunts failure looks more like a witch hunt to me...