Fifth Generation Mars

Phobos-Grunt

Phobos-Grunt was launched 09 November 2011, after a two year delay. The spacecraft did not perform its scheduled burn to begin its trajectory to Mars and both spacecraft were stranded in Earth orbit after communications failed, and fell back to Earth on 15 January 2012. Russia has failed in all 17 of its attempts to study the Red Planet close-up since 1960. The most recent failure before November 2011 occurred in 1996, when Russia lost its Mars-96 orbiter during launch.

Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said that the failure of the Phobos-Grunt mission – far from the only Russian space mishap in recent years – could have been caused by emissions from an American radar station. The response was powerful – we knew they were to blame! This was not the cause, but try convincing anti-American Russians of that.

The Phobos-Grunt international cooperative program spacecraft with China’s Yinghuo-1 (YH-1) piggyback smaller orbiter first Mars exploration spacecraft was planned to fly to Mars starting in October 2011 with the intent of releasing the YH-1 Chinese spacecraft in mars orbit for it's autonomous mission.The Phobos-Grunt spacecraft would continue on to explore the surface of the Mars moon Phobos to ultimately land on phobus and then returning samples of the moon's soil to Earth. The full mission duration was expected to last 330 days.

The Phobos-Grunt international cooperative program spacecraft with the China’s Yinghuo-1 (YH-1) orbiter spacecaft intended to fly to Mars starting in October 2009 would in all probability be delayed until the next Mars window in October 2011 because the on board flight control systems are not mature or perfected enough to commit to such a long duration mission with any hope of reliability for such an expensive multi year mission with China and the rest of the participants. It was being characterized as not robust enough to survive the rigors of the mission without more rigorous testing.The spacecraft was still undergoing systems integration testing which would not be completed in time for the launch window. It would afford everybody a breather to review all systems integration with the spacecraft and booster as well as all programming to eliminate possible problems down the road. The same personnel involved in this program would also be involved in the follow up programs forcing a full Mars window of two year slip in the program. This could also affect the timing of the Luna-Glob program planning that has already slipped one year to 2012. It in fact appears that the launch window has now slipped beyond the proper launch alignment window for this launch to happen on time and further rushing would almost certainly cause problems thus the apparent high probability of a two year program delay was expected as has been rumored for months.

Russia’s fifth generation Mars probe was expected to be launched in October 2009 as a part of an international Mars exploration effort with China providing a piggyback sub satellite Yinghou-1 (meaning light from firefly) to be released in Mars orbit in 2010 after a flight duration of 10 months. The 1.5 billion Ruble ($64.4 million) Phobos-Grunt spacecraft built by the veteran mars spacecraft design bureau Lavochkin Research and Production Association was different from its Mars -96 predecessor and was designed to be launched on the Zenit-SL3B booster of the Ukraine. It was originally designed to be launched by the Soyuz-2/Fregat booster but with the addition of the Chinese piggyback sub satellite Yinghou-1 it was switched to the Zenit-3SLB for launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The Yinghou-1 Chinese probe would conduct solar wind studies as well as magnetic fields and general mission environment studies. The spacecraft would carry two three panel solar arrays for power production but would be electrically powered by the Phobos-Grunt spacecraft while in transit to mars and it has limited imaging capability. Yinghou-1 was delivered to the Baikonur Cosmodrome in early August 2009. It weighs in at 115 kilograms and measures 75 cm long by 75 cm wide and 60 cm high.

After a ten month transit to Mars the spacecraft would enter Mars orbit with the final intent to recover soil samples from Phobos to return to earth. In addition to a detailed study of Phobos one of the two moons of Mars it was planned to carry out studies of the surface of Mars looking for future landing sites for a mars unmanned Lander, rover spacecraft combination for a future planned missions. The actual scientific missions of the phobos-Grunt spacecraft besides landing on Phobos and acquiring soil samples from it may be able to identify the actual building block elements that make up what created the solar system without the contamination of planetary environmental processes. Again this spacecraft was equipped to study the interplanetary space medium while in transit to Mars as well as do detailed study of the Phobos soils samples obtained before return to earth. Prior to doing the detailed exploration of Phobos it was planned for the orbiter to study Mars in detail along with acquiring greater information about its two moons and their orbital dynamics. Though the ASR (automatic Sample Return) portion of the Phobos-Grunt probe would launch itself back to earth with its samples the remaining spacecraft was expected to continue its mission for about a year reporting on Phobos as well as Mars.

The failure of Russia’s Phobos-Grunt probe, which has crashed into the Pacific Ocean, was the disappointing completion of the Russia’s first interplanetary mission in 15 years. The doomed unmanned expedition, when coupled with a total of six launch failures for 2011, is considered by experts a particular blow to the reputation of the Russian space program. The reputation of the space program is a sensitive issue, given that it is currently the only source of transportation between earth and the International Space Station.

New Deputy Prime Minister, Dmitry Rogozin has made several steely statements, promising order in the industry. “I am taking the investigation into the reasons for the Phobos-Grunt failure under personal control,” Rogozin wrote on his Facebook page, according to RIA Novosti.

As experts have pointed out, however, a thorough investigation of what went wrong with Phobos-Grunt is technically impossible. “The probe, which weighed two tons… exploded in Earth’s atmosphere,” said Igor Marinich, editor in chief of the online magazine “Novosti Kosmonavtiki.” (Space News).

A version of events that includes possible sabotage, as voiced by Vladimir Popovkin, current head of Roskosmos, which oversaw the Phobos-Grunt project, is therefore impossible to prove or disprove.

Alexander Zhelaznyakov, a member of the Russian Tsiolkovsky Space Academy, said that in theory, strong and focused radio waves are technically able to damage a space probe’s electronics. But he pointed out that the level of cooperation and goodwill among the key space powers make speculations about such an unfriendly act useless.

Those who deal with international space programs tend to be surprised by how friendly the atmosphere is in the industry. “I learned [during training in Star City, where cosmonauts prepare for spending time aboard the ISS] how close the Russian-American relationship is: American astronauts speak Russian far better than the American businesspeople I know in Russia,” said Esther Dyson, a venture capitalist who took a full course of training in the Star City as a back-up cosmonaut.

During a recent meeting with Rogozin, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said that the civil space program must get army–style quality control. Among other things, the military quality control requires a permanent presence of a controlling organization (similar to army purchase officers) at any given factory.

There is some debate as to whether strict quality control alone will help the industry, which urgently needs a new influx of talented staff and updated manufacturing hardware.

“We are talking not about a crisis, but about the consequences of long-term under-financing of the industry,” Zheleznyakov said. The freeze on space program financing, ordered under then-President Boris Yeltsin, has played a part in today’s failures, but according to Zhaleznyakov, Russian space scientists must also adapt more to the modern age. And Roskosmos – both when it comes to programs in Earth’s orbit and for solar system exploration – must act in line with national priorities, according to the expert.

“We are allies in space with Europe, the U.S. and China, and we shouldn’t be expecting any foul play from them,” Zheleznyakov said. He suggested that closer attention must be paid to outdated technologies and to a lack of communication between the older generation and young scientists. Zheleznyakov pointed out that Phobos-Grunt was made using 10-year-old technology and spare parts whose warranties were expired.

Space radiation triggered a glitch in the on-board computer system causing the recent crash of Russia’s Mars probe, Federal Space Agency head Vladimir Popovkin said on 31 January 2012. “Two components of the onboard computer system were spontaneously rebooted and it switched into a standby mode,” he said. “The most likely reason [for the glitch] is the impact of heavy charged space particles,” he said.

Another possible cause could have been defective microchips imported from abroad, he said. “The use of imported microchips is not only our problem,” he said, adding that NASA and the U.S. Defense Department were also concerned by illegal imports of those products. A government commission has ruled out any “external or foreign influence” on the spacecraft, including alleged electromagnetic emission from a U.S. radar in the Pacific Ocean.

 Phobos-Grunt-II

It was planned for the Phobos-Grunt second spacecraft to deposit a rover explorer on the surface of Mars. Ultimately Lavochkin Research and Production Association may plan to retrieving the first soil sample from Mars returned to earth as a follow up to this effort provided the economics of the Russian government permit this to be accomplished and if this mission was successful.