Phobos-Grunt
Phobos-Grunt — a Russian mission to land on Mars's moon Phobos and bring a sample back to Earth, carrying China's first Mars orbiter, Yinghuo-1 (launched 8 November 2011). Its propulsion unit never fired, leaving both in low Earth orbit; the probable cause was a computer fault. It re-entered on 15 January 2012 over the Pacific. (Its orbit is shown representatively.)
Key facts
Mission & specifications
Mission
- Operator
- Lavochkin / IKI (Russia)
- Launched
- November 8, 2011
- Status
- Lost
Trajectory
- Distance from the Sun
- 0.996 AU
- Computed from the cached position
- Distance from Earth
- 1,461,182 km
- Computed from cached positions
- Distance from Venus
- 0.276 AU
- Computed from cached positions
Mission
Phobos-Grunt — "grunt" is Russian for soil — was designed to land on Mars's moon Phobos, scoop up a sample and send it back to Earth. It was Russia's first planetary mission since Mars 96, and it carried a passenger: Yinghuo-1, China's first Mars orbiter. The plan was to reach Mars in about ten months, land on Phobos in early 2013 and return a capsule with up to about 200 grams of soil in August 2014. Launched on 8 November 2011 at 20:16 UT, it reached a low parking orbit, but at 22:55 UT, when its own propulsion unit should have fired to begin the trip, nothing happened. ESA's tracking station made brief contact on 22 and 23 November and Russian stations on 24 November, but the craft could not be commanded out of orbit, and it never left Earth. An investigation found the probable cause was a programming error that rebooted two channels of its computer at once. It re-entered the atmosphere on 15 January 2012 at about 17:46 UT, over the Pacific off southern Chile, taking Yinghuo-1 with it.
- 2011Phobos-Grunt launches on a Zenit rocketLaunch
Bound for Phobos with China's Yinghuo-1 aboard.
- 2011The engine does not fireMilestone
Its propulsion unit stays silent, leaving it in low Earth orbit.
- 2011A brief contactMilestone
ESA's tracking station hears it; contact is lost again after 24 November.
At about 17:46 UT, over the Pacific off southern Chile.
Images
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