The End of Phobos-Grunt

The doomed Russian spacecraft, Phobos-Grunt has finally come crashing back to Earth.  I didn't want to admit to myself that it was going to end this way, but now there is no denying it.  Earlier today, Phobos-Grunt re-entered Earth's atmosphere, and while some of it burned up, debris did come down in the Pacific Ocean, west of Chile.  So ends the latest Russian interplanetary mission.

Artist's conception of the Phobos-Grunt spacecraft.

Phobos-Grunt was intended to fly to the Martian moon, Phobos, and return a soil sample via a small re-entry capsule.  It would have been the first return sample from the Mars system by any nation.  However, shortly after the November launch, ground controllers in Moscow lost contact with the spacecraft.  Apparently, two planned rocket burns never occurred, and the spacecraft never left Earth orbit.  For weeks, controllers tried to re-establish contact, and except for one short communication, contact was never fully regained.  Hope remained for some weeks that the spacecraft could be salvaged, but, clearly, that never happened.

Russia (and before them, the Soviet Union) has had a long history of mission failures to the red planet.  Of the nearly 20 missions Russia has aimed at Mars, none have been complete successes, and only a handful have partially succeeded.  The Phobos-Grunt disaster is reminiscent of the Mars 96 incident, where a complex Mars orbiter and lander failed to leave Earth's orbit and burned up over the Pacific.  This latest failure, coupled with a recent spate of other space failures, has Russia's government putting the pressure on those in the space industry.  President Medvedev even went so far as to threaten prosecution of engineers and scientists who work on failed missions.  Succeed or rot in prison - a truly sound policy!

Where Russia goes from here isn't yet clear.  Russia takes space exploration seriously, and despite this latest failure, I believe they will continue with interplanetary science missions.  There is some talk of the Russians being involved with the upcoming ExoMars mission.  ExoMars is a collaboration between the ESA and NASA, and would launch an orbiter to Mars in 2016.  That orbiter could be partially outfitted with Russian instruments and be launched atop a Russian Proton rocket.  A rover would follow in 2018, but it is not yet known if Russia would help with that part of the mission.

Stuck in orbit, Phobos-Grunt as seen from Earth (Ralf Vandebergh).

Russia is an important international partner in humanity's continued exploration of space.  With luck, they will rebound from this setback, and contribute on future missions to the red planet and beyond.