Russian Mars probe Phobos Grunt, stranded in Earth orbit since its main engines failed to fire after launch on Nov. 8th, is beginning to sink back into the atmosphere. Analysts expect re-entry to occur sometime in early to mid-January 2012. Until then, it is possible to see the doomed probe zipping brightly across the night sky. Kevin Fetter video-recorded this pass over his home in Brockville, Canada, on Dec. 8th:
In the video, Phobos Grunt was shining about as brightly as a 3rd-magnitude star, but it can get much brighter than that. Tom Smith watched it fly over Anaheim, California, during the early hours of Dec. 9th: "Phobos Grunt was brighter than the 1st-magnitude star Deneb and moving noticeably faster than the International Space Station," he reports.
Ready to see for yourself? Check SpaceWeather's online Satellite Tracker or your smartphone for Phobos Grunt flyby times.
It is high time that Russia collaborates with India on such space missions. Will save cost and time for both. Chances of such types of failures will hopefully come down.
ReplyDelete