Russia's attempts to revive Mars probe unsuccessful so far
10 Nov 2011
Moscow: Roscosmos, Russia's space agency said it has failed so far to fix a probe bound for a moon of Mars that has failed to fire its engines and get out of Earth's orbit.
Roscosmos spokesman, Alexei Kuznetsov, said efforts to communicate with the unmanned Phobos-Grunt (Phobos-Soil) spacecraft hadn't been successful. There is a theoretical possibility that the massive 15-tonne spacecraft could come crashing down in a couple of weeks should the problem remain unresolved. But that is in the future.
Kuznetsov said Thursday space controllers will continue attempts to fire the probe's engines to steer it on its way to one of Mars' two moons, Phobos.
The $170 million craft, launched Wednesday, reached preliminary orbit but its engines failed to fire.
Loaded with scientific instruments, the spacecraft took from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. This is Russia's most ambitious mission to the Red Planet since a 1996 Mars probe crashed shortly after launch.
Phobos-Grunt is due to land on one of the Red Planet's two small moons, scoop up half a pound of gravel (''grunt'' is Russian for ''soil''), and return the consignment back to Earth.
