Australian Tracking station picks Phobos signal

[astroron (Ron)]

A signal has been recieved from the Phobos Mission Satellite
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMDKBZW5VG_index_0.html

I hope they can get the satellite going again
Cheers

[astroron (Ron)]

Latest information from ESA
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEM4NEZW5VG_index_0.html
Things looka little bit more promising
Cheers

[ZeroID (Brent)]

What's Russian for "Where the heck am I ? This ain't Phobos !!"

[CraigS]

Well, it seems the probe has now missed its ballistic Phobos trajectory insertion window, so the big question now is … what will become of it now?

I have seen talk about a possible Mars fly-by, or even Moon exploration.
As the probe contains live bacteria etc, if this could somehow be returned to Earth safely, at least something of value could be salvaged from this part of its mission scope.

Probe power is still an issue.

I really hope the failure of this probe doesn't influence public opinions about MSL/Curiosity, which is set for launch in about 2 days time. If Nasa has any problems whatsoever, the whole business of planetary exploration could turn very ugly, very quickly.

Let's hope not ! MSL/Curiosity is the most advanced probe ever devised and is set to return a huge amount of information back to us about habitability past and present, on Mars.

Fingers crossed for MSL/CUriosity.

Adios Phobos-Grunt !

Cheers

[astroron (Ron)]

Craig, Do you think the Russians have a Phobia *pun intended* about Mars, as they have had very little or is it no success? with anything they have sent to Mars
Cheers

[Omaroo (Chris Malikoff)]

Amazing that they can miss Mars altogether, but successfully land probes on Venus - with its 600+ degree surface temperature and take photos.

[CraigS]

Hmm … incredibly poor track record has USSR/Russia with probes to Mars. I don't think one has made it there, yet (out of a total of about 20 USSR/Russian probes, I think only about 2 have made it into Mars orbit)!

So .. Yep Ron … I reckon they must have some major issues they with Mars/Phobos.

I'll follow Chris' lead and say that perhaps they should make Venus theirs and leave Mars to NASA/ESA (??)

Cheers

[bartman (Bart)]

Thanks for posting this as I was unaware that the Telstra site contained space data relaying antennae ......I have driven past this site ( on average 5 times a week x 48 weeks a year x 5 years..... +/- a few hundred as overtime and visiting my sister blah blah.... ) about 1500 times and always thought it was just a international PHONE operation.

And also thanks for posting because its great to hear(also pun intended) that they have been able to hear the satellite!

Originally Posted by CraigS

Let's hope not ! MSL/Curiosity is the most advanced probe ever devised and is set to return a huge amount of information back to us about habitability past and present, on Mars.

Cheers

and a possible future too...
Bartman

[astroron (Ron)]

Latest information
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEM5AJZW5VG_index_0.html
Cheers