Phobos-Grunt on:  
[Wikipedia]  
[Google]  
[Amazon]
Fobos-Grunt or Phobos-Grunt (russian: link=no, Фобос-Грунт, where ''грунт'' refers to the ''ground'' in the narrow geological meaning of any type of soil or rock exposed on the surface) was an attempted Russian
sample return mission
A sample-return mission is a spacecraft mission to collect and return samples from an extraterrestrial location to Earth for analysis. Sample-return missions may bring back merely atoms and molecules or a deposit of complex compounds such as lo ...
to
Phobos, one of the moons of
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury (planet), Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Mars (mythology), Roman god of war. Mars is a terr ...
. Fobos-Grunt also carried the Chinese Mars
orbiter
A spacecraft is a vehicle or machine designed to fly in outer space. A type of artificial satellite, spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, Earth observation, meteorology, navigation, space colonization, pl ...
Yinghuo-1
Yinghuo-1 () was a Chinese Mars-exploration space probe, intended to be the first Chinese planetary space probe and the first Chinese spacecraft to orbit Mars. It was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, on 8 November 2011, along with ...
and the tiny
Living Interplanetary Flight Experiment
The Living Interplanetary Flight ExperimentAsian Scientist"Phobos-Grunt Mission Carrying Yinghuo-1 Space Probe Suffers Technical Glitch" Srinivas Laxman, 9 November 2011 (LIFE or Phobos LIFE) was an interplanetary mission developed by the Planetar ...
funded by the
Planetary Society
The Planetary Society is an American internationally-active non-governmental nonprofit organization. It is involved in research, public outreach, and political space advocacy for engineering projects related to astronomy, planetary science, a ...
.
It was launched on 8 November 2011, at 20:16
UTC, from the
Baikonur Cosmodrome
The Baikonur Cosmodrome ( kk, Байқоңыр ғарыш айлағы, translit=Baiqoñyr ğaryş ailağy, ; russian: Космодром Байконур, translit=Kosmodrom Baykonur, ) is a spaceport in an area of southern Kazakhstan leased to R ...
, but subsequent rocket burns intended to set the craft on a course for Mars failed, leaving it stranded in
low Earth orbit
A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an orbit around Earth with a period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial objects in outer space are in LEO, with an altitude never mor ...
.
[ Efforts to reactivate the craft were unsuccessful, and it fell back to Earth in an uncontrolled ]re-entry
Atmospheric entry is the movement of an object from outer space into and through the gases of an atmosphere of a planet, dwarf planet, or natural satellite. There are two main types of atmospheric entry: ''uncontrolled entry'', such as the entr ...
on 15 January 2012, over the Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...
, west of Chile. The return vehicle was to have returned to Earth in August 2014, carrying up to of soil from Phobos.
Funded by the Russian Federal Space Agency
The State Space Corporation "Roscosmos" (russian: Государственная корпорация по космической деятельности «Роскосмос»), commonly known simply as Roscosmos (russian: Роскосмос) ...
and developed by Lavochkin
NPO Lavochkin (russian: НПО Лавочкина, OKB-301, also called Lavochkin Research and Production Association or shortly Lavochkin Association, LA) is a Russian aerospace company. It is a major player in the Russian space program, being th ...
and the Russian Space Research Institute
The Russian Space Research Institute (russian: Институт космических исследований Российской академии наук, Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, SRI RAS, Russian abbreviat ...
, Fobos-Grunt was the first Russian-led interplanetary mission since the failed Mars 96
Mars 96 (sometimes called Mars-8) was a failed Mars mission launched in 1996 to investigate Mars by the Russian Space Forces and not directly related to the Soviet Mars probe program of the same name. After failure of the second fourth-stage bu ...
. The last successful interplanetary missions were the Soviet Vega 2
Vega 2 (along with Vega 1) was a Soviet space probe part of the Vega program to explore Halley's comet and Venus. The spacecraft was a development of the earlier ''Venera'' craft. The name VeGa (ВеГа) combines the first two letters Russian wo ...
in 1985–1986, and the partially successful Phobos 2
''Phobos 2'' was the last space probe designed by the Soviet Union. It was designed to explore the moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos. It was launched on 12 July 1988, and entered orbit on 29 January 1989.
''Phobos 2'' operated nominally throug ...
in 1988–1989. Fobos-Grunt was designed to become the first spacecraft to return a macroscopic sample from an extraterrestrial body since Luna 24
''Luna 24'' was a robotic probe of the Soviet Union's Luna programme. The last of the Luna series of spacecraft, the mission of the ''Luna 24'' probe was the third Soviet mission to return lunar soil samples from the Moon (the first two sampl ...
in 1976.
Project history
Budget
The cost of the project was 1.5 billion rubles (US$64.4 million). Project funding for the timeframe 2009–2012, including post-launch operations, was about 2.4 billion rubles. The total cost of the mission was to have been 5 billion rubles (US$163 million).
According to lead scientist Alexander Zakharov, the entire spacecraft and most of the instruments were new, though the designs drew upon the nation's legacy of three successful Luna missions, which in the 1970s retrieved a few hundred grams of Moon rocks. Zakharov had described the Phobos sample return project as "possibly the most difficult interplanetary one to date".
Development
The Fobos-Grunt project began in 1999, when the Russian Space Research Institute
The Russian Space Research Institute (russian: Институт космических исследований Российской академии наук, Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, SRI RAS, Russian abbreviat ...
and NPO Lavochkin
NPO Lavochkin (russian: НПО Лавочкина, OKB-301, also called Lavochkin Research and Production Association or shortly Lavochkin Association, LA) is a Russian aerospace company. It is a major player in the Russian space program, being th ...
, the main developer of Soviet and Russian interplanetary probes, initiated a 9 million rouble
The ruble (American English) or rouble (Commonwealth English) (; rus, рубль, p=rublʲ) is the currency unit of Belarus and Russia. Historically, it was the currency of the Russian Empire and of the Soviet Union.
, currencies named '' ...
feasibility study into a Phobos sample-return mission. The initial spacecraft design was to be similar to the probes of the Phobos program
Phobos (Greek for "fear") most commonly refers to:
* Phobos (moon), a moon of Mars
* Phobos (mythology), the Greek god and personification of fear and panic
Phobos may also refer to:
Comics
* Phobos (Marvel Comics)
* Phobos (''W.I.T.C.H.''), a ...
launched in the late 1980s. Development of the spacecraft started in 2001 and the preliminary design was completed in 2004. For years, the project stalled as a result of low levels of financing of the Russian space program. This changed in the summer of 2005, when the new government plan for space activities in 2006–2015 was published. Fobos-Grunt was now made one of the program's flagship missions. With substantially improved funding, the launch date was set for October 2009. The 2004 design was revised a couple of times and international partners were invited to join the project. In June 2006, NPO Lavochkin announced that it had begun manufacturing and testing the development version of the spacecraft's onboard equipment.
On 26 March 2007, Russia and China signed a cooperative agreement on the joint exploration of Mars, which included sending China's first interplanetary probe, Yinghuo-1
Yinghuo-1 () was a Chinese Mars-exploration space probe, intended to be the first Chinese planetary space probe and the first Chinese spacecraft to orbit Mars. It was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, on 8 November 2011, along with ...
, to Mars together with the Fobos-Grunt spacecraft. Yinghuo-1 weighed and would have been released by the main spacecraft into a Mars orbit.
Partners
NPO Lavochkin
NPO Lavochkin (russian: НПО Лавочкина, OKB-301, also called Lavochkin Research and Production Association or shortly Lavochkin Association, LA) is a Russian aerospace company. It is a major player in the Russian space program, being th ...
was the project's main contractor developing its components. The Chief Designer of Fobos-Grunt was Maksim Martynov. Phobos soil sampling and downloading were developed by the GEOHI RAN Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences
The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; russian: Росси́йская акаде́мия нау́к (РАН) ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across t ...
(Vernadski Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical chemistry) and the integrated scientific studies of Phobos and Mars by remote and contact methods were the responsibility of the Russian Space Research Institute
The Russian Space Research Institute (russian: Институт космических исследований Российской академии наук, Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, SRI RAS, Russian abbreviat ...
, where Alexander Zakharov served as lead scientist of the mission.
The Chinese Yinghuo-1
Yinghuo-1 () was a Chinese Mars-exploration space probe, intended to be the first Chinese planetary space probe and the first Chinese spacecraft to orbit Mars. It was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, on 8 November 2011, along with ...
orbiter was launched together with Fobos-Grunt. In late 2012, after a 10–11.5-month cruise, Yinghuo-1 would have separated and entered an 800 × 80,000 km equatorial orbit (5° inclination) with a period of three days. The spacecraft was expected to remain on Martian orbit for one year. Yinghuo-1 would have focused mainly on the study of the external environment of Mars. Space center researchers expected to use photographs and data to study the magnetic field of Mars and the interaction between ionosphere
The ionosphere () is the ionized part of the upper atmosphere of Earth, from about to above sea level, a region that includes the thermosphere and parts of the mesosphere and exosphere. The ionosphere is ionized by solar radiation. It plays an ...
s, escape particles and solar wind
The solar wind is a stream of charged particles released from the upper atmosphere of the Sun, called the corona. This plasma mostly consists of electrons, protons and alpha particles with kinetic energy between . The composition of the sola ...
.
A second Chinese payload, the Soil Offloading and Preparation System (SOPSYS), was integrated in the lander. SOPSYS was a microgravity grinding tool developed by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
Another payload on Fobos-Grunt was an experiment from the Planetary Society
The Planetary Society is an American internationally-active non-governmental nonprofit organization. It is involved in research, public outreach, and political space advocacy for engineering projects related to astronomy, planetary science, a ...
called Living Interplanetary Flight Experiment
The Living Interplanetary Flight ExperimentAsian Scientist"Phobos-Grunt Mission Carrying Yinghuo-1 Space Probe Suffers Technical Glitch" Srinivas Laxman, 9 November 2011 (LIFE or Phobos LIFE) was an interplanetary mission developed by the Planetar ...
; its goal was to test whether selected organism
In biology, an organism () is any living system that functions as an individual entity. All organisms are composed of cells (cell theory). Organisms are classified by taxonomy into groups such as multicellular animals, plants, and ...
s can survive a few years in deep space by flying them through interplanetary space. The experiment would have tested one aspect of transpermia, the hypothesis that life could survive space travel, if protected inside rocks blasted by impact off one planet to land on another.
The Bulgarian Academy of Sciences contributed with a radiation measurement experiment on Fobos-Grunt.
Two MetNet
Mars MetNet is a planned atmospheric science mission to Mars, initiated by the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) and under development by Finland, Russia and Spain. By September 2013, two flight-capable entry, descent and landing systems (ED ...
Mars landers developed by the Finnish Meteorological Institute
The Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI; fi, Ilmatieteen laitos; sv, Meteorologiska institutet) is the government agency responsible for gathering and reporting weather data and forecasts in Finland. It is a part of the Ministry of Transport ...
, were planned to be included as payload of the Fobos-Grunt mission, but weight constraints on the spacecraft required dropping the MetNet landers from the mission.
Postponed 2009 launch
The October 2009 launch date could not be achieved due to delays in the spacecraft development. During 2009, officials admitted that the schedule was very tight, but still hoped until the last moment that a launch could be made. On 21 September 2009, the mission was officially announced to be delayed until the next launch window in 2011. A main reason for the delay was difficulties encountered during development of the spacecraft's onboard computers. While the Moscow-based company Tehkhom provided the computer hardware on time, the internal NPO Lavochkin team responsible for integration and software development fell behind schedule. The retirement of NPO Lavochkin's head Valeriy N. Poletskiy in January 2010 was widely seen as linked to the delay of Fobos-Grunt. Viktor Khartov was appointed the new head of the company. During the extra development time resulting from the delay, a Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles
Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...
-built drill was added to the Phobos lander as a back-up soil extraction device.
2011 launch
The spacecraft arrived at Baikonur Cosmodrome
The Baikonur Cosmodrome ( kk, Байқоңыр ғарыш айлағы, translit=Baiqoñyr ğaryş ailağy, ; russian: Космодром Байконур, translit=Kosmodrom Baykonur, ) is a spaceport in an area of southern Kazakhstan leased to R ...
on 17 October 2011 and was transported to Site 31 for pre-launch processing. The Zenit-2SB41 launch vehicle carrying Fobos-Grunt successfully lifted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome at 20:16 UTC on 8 November 2011. The Zenit booster inserted the spacecraft into an initial elliptical low Earth orbit
A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an orbit around Earth with a period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial objects in outer space are in LEO, with an altitude never mor ...
with an inclination of 51.4°.
Two firings of the main propulsion unit in Earth orbit were required to send the spacecraft onto the interplanetary trajectory. Since both engine ignitions would have taken place outside the range of Russian ground stations, the project participants asked volunteers around the world to take optical observations of the burns, e.g. with telescopes, and report the results to enable more accurate prediction of the mission flight path upon entry into the range of Russian ground stations.
Post-launch
It was expected that after 2.5 hours and 1.7 revolutions in the initial orbit, the autonomous main propulsion unit (MDU), derived from the Fregat upper stage, would conduct its firing to insert the spacecraft into the elliptical orbit (250 km x 4150–4170 km) with a period of about 2.2 hours. After the completion of the first burn, the external fuel tank of the propulsion unit was expected to be jettisoned, with ignition for a second burn to depart Earth orbit scheduled for one orbit, or 2.1 hours, after the end of the first burn.[Mission profile](_blank)
Phobos-Soil project The propulsion module constitutes the cruise-stage bus of Fobos-Grunt. According to original plans, Mars orbit arrival had been expected during September 2012 and the return vehicle was scheduled to reach Earth in August 2014.
Following what would have been the planned end of the first burn, the spacecraft could not be located in the target orbit. The spacecraft was subsequently discovered to still be in its initial parking orbit
A parking orbit is a temporary orbit used during the launch of a spacecraft. A launch vehicle boosts into the parking orbit, then coasts for a while, then fires again to enter the final desired trajectory. The alternative to a parking orbit is ''di ...
and it was determined that the burn had not taken place. Initially, engineers had about three days from launch to rescue the spacecraft before its batteries ran out. It was then established that the craft's solar panels had deployed, giving engineers more time to restore control. It was soon discovered the spacecraft was adjusting its orbit, changing its expected re-entry from late November or December 2011 to as late as early 2012.[David Warmflash, M.D. – '' Phobos-Grunt's Mysterious Thruster Activation: A Function of Safe Mode or Just Good Luck?'' (16 November 2011) – Universe Today]
/ref> Even though it had not been contacted, the spacecraft seemed to be actively adjusting its perigee
An apsis (; ) is the farthest or nearest point in the orbit of a planetary body about its primary body. For example, the apsides of the Earth are called the aphelion and perihelion.
General description
There are two apsides in any ell ...
(the point it is closest to Earth in its orbit).
Contact
On 22 November 2011, a signal from the probe was picked up by the European Space Agency's tracking station in Perth, Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
, after it had sent the probe the command to turn on one of its transmitters. The European Space Operations Centre
The European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) serves as the main mission control centre for the European Space Agency (ESA) and is located in Darmstadt, Germany. ESOC's primary function is the operation of unmanned spacecraft on behalf of ESA and ...
(ESOC) in Darmstadt
Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it th ...
, Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
, reported that the contact was made at 20:25 UTC on 22 November 2011 after some modifications had been made to the 15 m dish facility in Perth
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...
to improve its chances of getting a signal. No telemetry
Telemetry is the in situ data collection, collection of measurements or other data at remote points and their automatic data transmission, transmission to receiving equipment (telecommunication) for monitoring. The word is derived from the Gr ...
was received in this communication. It remained unclear whether the communications link would have been sufficient to command the spacecraft to switch on its engines to take it on its intended trajectory toward Mars. Roscosmos officials said that the window of opportunity to salvage Fobos-Grunt would close in early December 2011.
The next day, on 23 November 2011, the Perth station again made contact with the spacecraft and during 6 minutes, about 400 telemetry "frames" and Doppler information were received. The amount of information received during this communication was not sufficient, and therefore it was not possible to identify the problem with the probe. Further communication attempts made by ESA were unsuccessful and contact was not reestablished. The space vehicle did not respond to the commands sent by the European Space Agency
, owners =
, headquarters = Paris, Île-de-France, France
, coordinates =
, spaceport = Guiana Space Centre
, seal = File:ESA emblem seal.png
, seal_size = 130px
, image = Views in the Main Control Room (1205 ...
to raise its orbit. Roscosmos provided these commands to ESA.
From Baikonour, Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...
, Roscosmos was able to receive telemetry from Fobos-Grunt on 24 November 2011 but attempts to contact it failed. This telemetry demonstrated that the probe's radio equipment was working and that it was communicating with the spacecraft's flight control systems. Moreover, Roscosmos's top officials believed Fobos-Grunt to be functional, stably oriented and charging batteries through its solar panels.
In a late November 2011 interview, the service manager of the European Space Agency for Fobos-Grunt, Wolfgang Hell, stated that Roscosmos had a better understanding of the problem with the spacecraft, saying they reached the conclusion that they have some kind of power problem on board.
ESA failed to communicate with the space probe in all of the five opportunities the agency had between 28 and 29 November 2011. During those occasions, the spacecraft did not comply with orders to fire the engines and raise its orbit. The Russian space agency then requested that ESA repeat the orders. The European Space Agency decided to end the efforts to contact the probe on 2 December 2011, with one analyst saying Fobos-Grunt appeared "dead in the water". However, ESA made teams available to assist the Fobos-Grunt mission if there was a change in situation.[ In spite of that Roscosmos stated their intention to continue to try to contact the space vehicle until it entered the atmosphere.
The U.S. Strategic Command's ]Joint Space Operations Center
The Combined Space Operations Center (CSpOC) is a U.S.–led multinational space operations center that provides command and control of space forces for United States Space Command's Combined Force Space Component Command. The CSpOC is located at ...
(JSpOC) tracked the probe and identified at the start of December 2011 that Fobos-Grunt had an elliptical Earth orbit at an altitude of between and , but falling a few miles each day.
Re-entry
Before reentry, the spacecraft still carried about 7.51 tonnes of highly toxic hydrazine
Hydrazine is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula . It is a simple pnictogen hydride, and is a colourless flammable liquid with an ammonia-like odour. Hydrazine is highly toxic unless handled in solution as, for example, hydrazine ...
and nitrogen tetroxide
Dinitrogen tetroxide, commonly referred to as nitrogen tetroxide (NTO), and occasionally (usually among ex-USSR/Russia rocket engineers) as amyl, is the chemical compound N2O4. It is a useful reagent in chemical synthesis. It forms an equilibrium ...
on board.[Vladimir Ischenkov – ''Russian scientists struggle to save Mars moon probe'' (9 November 2011) – Associated Press]
/ref> This was mostly fuel for the spacecraft's upper stage. These compounds, with melting points of 2 °C and −11.2 °C, are normally kept in liquid form and were expected to burn out during re-entry. NASA veteran James Oberg
James Edward Oberg (born November 7, 1944) is an American space journalist and historian, regarded as an expert on the Russian and Chinese space programs. He had a 22-year career as a space engineer in NASA specializing in orbital rendezvous. Ob ...
said the hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide "could freeze before ultimately entering", thus contaminating the impact area.[ He also stated that if Fobos-Grunt were not salvaged, it may be the most dangerous object to fall from orbit.][ Meanwhile, the head of Roscosmos said the probability of parts reaching the Earth surface was "highly unlikely", and that the spacecraft, including the LIFE module and the Yinghuo-1 orbiter, would be destroyed during re-entry.]
Russian military sources claimed that Fobos-Grunt was somewhere over the Pacific Ocean between New Zealand and South America when it re-entered the atmosphere at about 17:45 UTC. Although it was initially feared its remains would reach land as close as 145 km west of Santa Fe, Argentina, the Russian military Air and Space Defense Forces reported that it ultimately fell into the Pacific Ocean, west of Wellington Island, Chile. The Defence Ministry spokesman subsequently revealed that such estimate was based on calculations, without witness reports. In contrast, Russian civilian ballistic experts said that the fragments had fallen over a broader patch of Earth's surface, and that the midpoint of the crash zone was located in the Goiás
Goiás () is a Brazilian state located in the Center-West region. Goiás borders the Federal District and the states of (from north clockwise) Tocantins, Bahia, Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso do Sul and Mato Grosso. The state capital is Goiânia. ...
state of Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
.
Aftermath
Initially, the head of Roscosmos Vladimir Popovkin
Vladimir Aleksandrovich Popovkin (russian: Владимир Александрович Поповкин; 25 September 1957 – 18 June 2014) was the General Director of the Russian Federal Space Agency and former First Deputy Defense Minister of R ...
, suggested that the Fobos-Grunt failure might have been the result of sabotage by a foreign nation.["Russian space chief claims space failures may be sabotage"](_blank)
NBC News, 10 January 2012 He also stated that risky technical decisions had been made because of limited funding. On 17 January 2012, an unidentified Russian official speculated that a U.S. radar stationed on the Marshall Islands
The Marshall Islands ( mh, Ṃajeḷ), officially the Republic of the Marshall Islands ( mh, Aolepān Aorōkin Ṃajeḷ),'' () is an independent island country and microstate near the Equator in the Pacific Ocean, slightly west of the Internati ...
may have inadvertently disabled the probe, but cited no evidence. Popovkin suggested the microchips may have been counterfeit, then he announced on 1 February 2012 that a burst of cosmic radiation
Cosmic rays are high-energy particles or clusters of particles (primarily represented by protons or atomic nuclei) that move through space at nearly the speed of light. They originate from the Sun, from outside of the Solar System in our own ...
may have caused computers to reboot and go into a standby mode. Industry experts cast doubt on the claim citing how unlikely the effects of such a burst are in low Earth orbit, inside the protection of Earth's magnetic field
Earth's magnetic field, also known as the geomagnetic field, is the magnetic field that extends from Earth's interior out into space, where it interacts with the solar wind, a stream of charged particles emanating from the Sun. The magnetic f ...
.
On 6 February 2012, the commission investigating the mishap concluded that Fobos-Grunt mission failed because of "a programming error which led to a simultaneous reboot of two working channels of an onboard computer". The craft's rocket pack never fired due to the computer reboot, leaving the craft stranded in Earth orbit. Although the specific failure was identified, experts suggest it was the culmination of poor quality control, lack of testing, security issues and corruption. Russian president Dmitry Medvedev
Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev ( rus, links=no, Дмитрий Анатольевич Медведев, p=ˈdmʲitrʲɪj ɐnɐˈtolʲjɪvʲɪtɕ mʲɪdˈvʲedʲɪf; born 14 September 1965) is a Russian politician who has been serving as the dep ...
suggested that those responsible should be punished and perhaps criminally prosecuted.
Repeat mission
In January 2012, scientists and engineers at the Russian Space Research Institute
The Russian Space Research Institute (russian: Институт космических исследований Российской академии наук, Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, SRI RAS, Russian abbreviat ...
and NPO Lavochkin
NPO Lavochkin (russian: НПО Лавочкина, OKB-301, also called Lavochkin Research and Production Association or shortly Lavochkin Association, LA) is a Russian aerospace company. It is a major player in the Russian space program, being th ...
called for a repeat sample return mission called Fobos-Grunt-2 and Boomerang for launch in 2020. Popovkin declared that they would soon attempt to repeat the Fobos-Grunt mission, if an agreement was not reached for Russian co-operation in the European Space Agency
, owners =
, headquarters = Paris, Île-de-France, France
, coordinates =
, spaceport = Guiana Space Centre
, seal = File:ESA emblem seal.png
, seal_size = 130px
, image = Views in the Main Control Room (1205 ...
's ExoMars
ExoMars (Exobiology on Mars) is an astrobiology programme of the European Space Agency (ESA).
The goals of ExoMars are to search for signs of past life on Mars, investigate how the Martian water and geochemical environment varies, investigate ...
program. However, since an agreement was reached for the inclusion of Russia as a full project partner, some instruments originally developed for Fobos-Grunt were flown in the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter
The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO or ExoMars Orbiter) is a collaborative project between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Russian Roscosmos agency that sent an atmospheric science, atmospheric research orbiter and the Schiaparelli EDM, ...
.
On 2 August 2014, the Russian Academy of Sciences
The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; russian: Росси́йская акаде́мия нау́к (РАН) ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across t ...
stated that the Phobos-Grunt repeat mission might be restarted for a launch approximately in 2024. In August 2015, the ESA
, owners =
, headquarters = Paris, Île-de-France, France
, coordinates =
, spaceport = Guiana Space Centre
, seal = File:ESA emblem seal.png
, seal_size = 130px
, image = Views in the Main Control Room (120 ...
-Roscosmos
The State Space Corporation "Roscosmos" (russian: Государственная корпорация по космической деятельности «Роскосмос»), commonly known simply as Roscosmos (russian: Роскосмос) ...
working group on post-ExoMars
ExoMars (Exobiology on Mars) is an astrobiology programme of the European Space Agency (ESA).
The goals of ExoMars are to search for signs of past life on Mars, investigate how the Martian water and geochemical environment varies, investigate ...
cooperation, completed a joint study for a possible future Phobos sample return mission, preliminary discussions were held, and in May 2015 the Russian Academy of Sciences submitted a budget proposal.[Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...]
.
[Fobos-Grunt sent to Baikonur]
It was also to study Mars from orbit, including its
atmosphere
An atmosphere () is a layer of gas or layers of gases that envelop a planet, and is held in place by the gravity of the planetary body. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A s ...
and dust storms, plasma and radiation.
;Science goals
* Delivery of samples of Phobos soil to Earth for scientific research of Phobos, Mars and Martian vicinity;
* ''
In situ
''In situ'' (; often not italicized in English) is a Latin phrase that translates literally to "on site" or "in position." It can mean "locally", "on site", "on the premises", or "in place" to describe where an event takes place and is used in ...
'' and remote studies of Phobos (to include analysis of soil samples);
* Monitoring the atmospheric behavior of Mars, including the dynamics of dust storms;
* Studies of the vicinity of Mars, including its radiation environment,
plasma and dust;
* Study of the origin of the Martian moons and their relation to Mars;
* Study of the role played by asteroid impacts in the formation of terrestrial planets;
* Search for possible past or present life (
biosignature
A biosignature (sometimes called chemical fossil or molecular fossil) is any substance – such as an element, isotope, or molecule – or phenomenon that provides scientific evidence of past or present life. Measurable attribute ...
s);
* Study of the impact of a three-year interplanetary round-trip journey on
extremophile
An extremophile (from Latin ' meaning "extreme" and Greek ' () meaning "love") is an organism that is able to live (or in some cases thrive) in extreme environments, i.e. environments that make survival challenging such as due to extreme temper ...
microorganisms in a small sealed capsule (
LIFE experiment).
Payload
![Model of the Phobos-Grunt russian probe P1110972](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/Model_of_the_Phobos-Grunt_russian_probe_P1110972.jpg)
*TV system for navigation and guidance (TSNN)
*Gas Analysis Package:
**Thermal Differential Analyzer (TDA)
**Gas-Chromatograph (KhMS-1F)
**Mass-Spectrometer (MAL-1F)
*Gamma ray spectrometer (FOGS)
*Neutron spectrometer (KhEND)
*Laser Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometer (LAZMA)
*Mössbauer Spectrometer (MIMOS-II)
*Thermal Detector (TERMO-FOB)
*Fourier Spectrometer (AOST)
*Echelle Spectrometer (TIMM)
*Seismogravimeter (GRAS-F)
*Seismometer (SEISMO)
*Long-wave radar (DPR)
*Visible and near-infrared microscopes (MicrOmega)
*Dust counter (Meteor-F)
*Dosimeter (Liulin-F)
*Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometer (MANAGA-F)
*Optical solar & star sensor (LIBRATsIYa)
*Plasma Complex (FPMS)
**Fluxgate magnetometer (DFM)
**Inductive magnetic sensor (KVD)
**Ion mass spectrometer (DIM)
**Ion mass spectrometer (DI)
*Ultrastable Oscillator (USO1)
*Ionospheric parameters experiment together with Yinghuo-1 (YH-1) spacecraft (MROE)
*BioPhobos/Anabioz
*BioPhobos/LIFE (Living Interplanetary Flight Experiment)
Mass summary
Mission plan
Journey
The spacecraft's journey to Mars would take about ten months. After arriving in Mars orbit, the main propulsion unit and the transfer truss would separate and the Chinese Mars orbiter would be released. Fobos-Grunt would then spend several months studying the planet and its moons from orbit, before landing on
Phobos. It was imperative to prevent the introduction to Mars of contaminants from Earth; according to Fobos-Grunt Chief Designer
Maksim Martynov, the probability of the probe accidentally reaching the surface of Mars was much lower than the maximum specified for Category III missions, the type assigned to Fobos-Grunt and defined in
COSPAR
The Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) was established on October 3, 1958 by the International Council for Scientific Unions (ICSU). Among COSPAR's objectives are the promotion of scientific research in space on an international level, wi ...
's
planetary protection
Planetary protection is a guiding principle in the design of an interplanetary mission, aiming to prevent biological contamination of both the target celestial body and the Earth in the case of sample-return missions. Planetary protection refle ...
policy (in accordance with
Article IX of the Outer Space Treaty).
On Phobos
The planned landing site at Phobos was a region from 5°S to 5°N, 230° to 235°E. Soil sample collection would begin immediately after the lander touched down on Phobos, with collection lasting 2–7 days. An emergency mode existed for the case of communications breakdown, which enabled the lander to automatically launch the return rocket to deliver the samples to Earth.
A robotic arm would have collected samples up to in diameter. At the end of the arm was a pipe-shaped tool which split to form a claw. The tool contained a piston which would have pushed the sample into a cylindrical container. A light-sensitive photo-diode would have confirmed whether material collection was successful and also allowed visual inspection of the digging area. The sample extraction device would have performed 15 to 20 scoops yielding a total of of soil.
The samples would be loaded into a capsule which would then be moved inside a special pipeline into the descent module by inflating an elastic bag within the pipe with gas.
[ Because the characteristics of Phobos soil are uncertain, the lander included another soil-extraction device, a Polish-built drill, which would have been used in case the soil turned out to be too rocky for the main scooping device.]
After the departure of the return stage, the lander's experiments would have continued ''in situ'' on Phobos' surface for a year. To conserve power, mission control would have turned these on and off in a precise sequence. The robotic arm would have placed more samples in a chamber that would heat it and analyze its emission spectra. This analysis might have been able to determine the presence of volatile compounds, such as water.
Sample return to Earth
The return stage was mounted on top of the lander. It would have needed to accelerate to to escape Phobos' gravity. In order to avoid harming the experiments remaining at the lander, the return stage would have ignited its engine once the vehicle had been vaulted to a safe height by springs. It would then have begun maneuvers for the eventual trip to Earth, where it would have arrived in August 2014. An 11-kg descent vehicle containing the capsule with soil samples (up to ) would have been released on direct approach to Earth at .[Phobos Soil – Spacecraft](_blank)
European Space Agency Following the aerodynamic braking to the conical descent vehicle would perform a hard landing without a parachute within the Sary Shagan
Sary Shagan ( rus, Сары-Шаган; kz, Сарышаған) is an anti-ballistic missile testing range located in Kazakhstan.
On 17 August 1956 the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union authorized plans for an experimental facility for ...
test range in Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...
.[ The vehicle did not have any radio equipment.] Ground-based radar and optical observations would have been used to track the vehicle's return.[The mission scenario of the Phobos-Grunt project](_blank)
Anatoly Zak
Summary of intended mission phases
Ground control
The mission control center was located at the Center for Deep Space Communications
The State Space Agency of Ukraine (SSAU; uk, Державне космічне агентство України, ''Derzhavne kosmichne ahentstvo Ukrayiny'', ДКАУ, ''DKAU'') is the Ukrainian government agency responsible for space policy a ...
( ''Национальный центр управления и испытаний космических средств'' , equipped with RT-70 radio telescope near Yevpatoria
Yevpatoria ( uk, Євпаторія, Yevpatoriia; russian: Евпатория, Yevpatoriya; crh, , , gr, Ευπατορία) is a city of regional significance in Western Crimea, north of Kalamita Bay. Yevpatoria serves as the administrative ...
in Crimea
Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...
. Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
and Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
agreed in late October 2010 that the European Space Operations Centre
The European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) serves as the main mission control centre for the European Space Agency (ESA) and is located in Darmstadt, Germany. ESOC's primary function is the operation of unmanned spacecraft on behalf of ESA and ...
in Darmstadt
Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it th ...
, Germany, would have controlled the probe.
Communications with the spacecraft on the initial parking orbit are described in a two-volume publication.
Scientific critiques
Barry E. DiGregorio, Director of the International Committee Against Mars Sample Return (ICAMSR), criticised the LIFE experiment carried by Fobos-Grunt as a violation of the Outer Space Treaty
russian: link=yes, Договор о космосе es, link=yes, Tratado sobre el espacio ultraterrestre
, long_name = Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moo ...
due to the possibility of contamination of Phobos or Mars with the microbial spores and live bacteria it contains should it have lost control and crash-landed on either body. It is speculated that the heat-resistant extremophile bacteria could survive such a crash, on the basis that ''Microbispora
''Microbispora'' is a Gram-positive, mesophilic, thermophilic
A thermophile is an organism—a type of extremophile—that thrives at relatively high temperatures, between . Many thermophiles are archaea, though they can be bacteria or fungi. ...
'' bacteria survived the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster
The Space Shuttle ''Columbia'' disaster was a fatal accident in the United States space program that occurred on February 1, 2003. During the STS-107 mission, Space Shuttle ''Columbia'' disintegrated as it reentered the atmosphere over Texa ...
.
According to Fobos-Grunt Chief Designer Maksim Martynov, the probability of the probe accidentally reaching the surface of Mars was much lower than the maximum specified for Category III missions, the type assigned to Fobos-Grunt and defined in COSPAR
The Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) was established on October 3, 1958 by the International Council for Scientific Unions (ICSU). Among COSPAR's objectives are the promotion of scientific research in space on an international level, wi ...
's planetary protection
Planetary protection is a guiding principle in the design of an interplanetary mission, aiming to prevent biological contamination of both the target celestial body and the Earth in the case of sample-return missions. Planetary protection refle ...
policy (in accordance with Article IX of the Outer Space Treaty).
See also
*
*
*
*
References
Further reading
*
*
*
*
External links
NSSDC entry of Fobos-Grunt
{{Orbital launches in 2011
Space probes launched in 2011
Missions to Mars
Phobos (moon)
Russian space probes
Sample return missions
Spacecraft which reentered in 2012
2011 in Russia
Destroyed space probes
Attached spacecraft
Astrobiology space missions