Thursday, January 12, 2012

Russian Grunt to Fall into the Ocean Sometime Between Saturday and Monday


In a recent Daily Galaxy blog article details the last few moments of the failed Russian Mars Phobos probe and its' projected impact in the Indian Ocean sometime between January 14 and January 16th.

The probe, which was launched on  Nov. 9, was to explore one of Mars’ two moons, Phobos, but became stranded after its  launch, still in Earth orbit, after it failed to respond to engineers in Russia and the European Space Agency, never igniting the stage that was to propel the spacecraft toward its target.

Phobos-Grunt weighs 14.6 tons, which includes 12 tons of highly toxic fuel,  all of which is projected to burn up before impacting the ocean.

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