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

[SiberianTiger]

Navigation in twitter is very confusing to me, so I'll just repost a quote from NK forum here:

ESA's #Maspalomas station being modified w/feedhorn antenna similar to what enabled #Perth to establish #PhobosGrunt contact last week

More details on #ESA activities in support of #PhobosGrunt mission control later. Teams on all sides working with #goodwill & #dedication.

 

[Mattyv]

Question, has the mission officially failed or is there still a chance it can make it to Mars?

 

[N_Molson]

Officially, it is an undead probe... :shifty:

 

[SiberianTiger]

Question, has the mission officially failed or is there still a chance it can make it to Mars?

There is no official acknowledgement of the mission's failure.

 

[Mattyv]

Whoops:facepalm:! What I meant to ask was: Is it still possible for the thing to reach Mars or has it missed the window. If it hasn't missed the window, when does the window close?

 

[orb]

SPACE.com: European Space Agency to Try Contacting Troubled Russian Probe Again

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

Belgian satellite observer Ralf Vandeberg has managed to photograph Phobos-Grunt using his 10-inch telescope!

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

Oh and BTW, any Zenit lovers here? :hello:

 

[SiberianTiger]

Belgian satellite observer Ralf Vandeberg has managed to photograph Phobos-Grunt using his 10-inch telescope!

A poster at NK forum has a different theory for how a shape of PhG might produce an image like this (http://www.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=848970#848970).

It's more favourable is support of the idea that the spacecraft is keeping the Sun attitude.

 

[SiberianTiger]

http://www.zarya.info/Diaries/Misc/PhobosGrunt1.php#log

November 29/30

An element set issued by Spacetrack for epoch 02:57 UTC indicated that, until that point the only significant variation in the orbit was down to atmospheric drag but it showed a small 'hiccup' in continuity that will only be confirmed by further element sets. With no indication of what thruster firing data Russia was attempting to upload, it is not possible to know when the firing(s) are to take place other than probably being later than 02:00 UTC. If they are timed to be detectable by Russian ground sensors then nothing is likely before the middle of the day when passes over Asia start to occur.

A Novosti press release around 06:00 UTC said that no response had occurred to the attempt to upload commands and that a transmission attempt would be made from ESA's station at Maspolomas, Gran Canaria later in the day. Gran Canaria sees two sets of passes daily on each of the northbound and southbound legs of the orbit, only the northbound set is currently usable as the southbound one has Phobos-Grunt in eclipse.

An indicator of the sparsity of information being released is that Novosti is now basing its reports on Spacetrack, rather than Russian, orbit data.

 

[Ripley]

There is no official acknowledgement of the mission's failure.

And then this

An indicator of the sparsity of information being released is that Novosti is now basing its reports on Spacetrack, rather than Russian, orbit data.

I understand the frustration, and the serious :facepalm: moment, but...isn't all this "official silence" starting to be a bit embarassing?

 

[agentgonzo]

I understand the frustration, and the serious :facepalm: moment, but...isn't all this "official silence" starting to be a bit embarassing?

No. It would be far more embarrassing if they announced that it had officially failed, then found a way to restart it, re purpose it and got it to do something useful. It's not like they're trying to hide the failure, just trying everything before declaring it officially failed. And there is a lot to try.

 

[SiberianTiger]

I understand the frustration, and the serious :facepalm: moment, but...isn't all this "official silence" starting to be a bit embarassing?

Please forgive the people, they are afraid of telling the truth. And through making daily reports on their (Lavochkin's) progress with enough technical detail present to make judgments, a great deal of truth would slip away.

 

[orb]

Universe Today: Canary Islands Antenna Being Modified to Boost Signal to Struggling Russian Mars Probe

 

[SiberianTiger]

The three pictures by Ralf Vandebergh that he has taken until now:

They have caused a response:
http://www.1prime.ru/news/0/%7BE1C430D1-1C10-4B90-9E73-772B2898272B%7D.uif

A source says that pictures of Phobos-Grunt confirm it's not keeping Sun attitude

MOSCOW, Nov 30 - PRIME. Pictures of Russian interplanetary probe Phobos-Grunt taken by an amateur astrophotographer confirm that the spacecraft is not in sun-facing attitude, said a source in rocket and space industry.

[...]

"If you look at the picture, it's visible that the lateral side of the spacecraft is illuminated, sunlight doesn't come at right angle to the solar arrays, but rather at much slanted angle" - he said.

He believes it might explain spurious appearance and disappearance of communications with the spacecraft, which "comes to life" when its solar arrays are properly illuminated and "dies" when they are shadowed again.

 

[Urwumpe]

if it does not even keep its fail safe attitude, then the probe is out of control and practically space debris. Time to say good bye.

 

[garyw]

if it does not even keep its fail safe attitude, then the probe is out of control and practically space debris. Time to say good bye.

On this topic I wonder if it's used up all it's attitude fuel in trying to maintain a sun centric attitude?

 

[Urwumpe]

On this topic I wonder if it's used up all it's attitude fuel in trying to maintain a sun centric attitude?

I doubt it, but then, they observed a rise in the orbit altitude, which was pretty strong, possible it consumed the RCS fuel for that maneuver,

 

[Artlav]

What a spacefaring civilization we are.
Can't even get a small probe from low orbit back to Earth intact, or send up a repair crew.

Any conceivable launch would take months to prepare and cost more than making and launching a new probe.

 

[Urwumpe]

What a spacefaring civilization we are.
Can't even get a small probe from low orbit back to Earth intact, or send up a repair crew.

Any conceivable launch would take months to prepare and cost more than making and launching a new probe.

Its like the first submarines, which had been just small boats, that can sink for a while.