Russian Phobos-Grunt Mission

I for one am happy to see Russia returning to deep space exploration. I have doubts of it's success but wish them the best on landing this on Phobos. It appears it will Launch in November 2011. I hope it is succesfull and maybe spark our government and people to get excited about space exploration again. Either way I want to see humanity reach out to the stars and any country willing to try has my support.

Phobos-Grunt project

Final preparations

During the Spektr-R launch campaign in the middle of July 2011, the head of NPO Lavochkin, Viktor Khartov, told reporters that the Phobos-Grunt spacecraft would be delivered to Baikonur at the end of September 2011, with its launch scheduled for Nov. 3-5, 2011

Yeah, didn't NASA get shut down? That has got to be the stupidest thing the Government has ever done.

Yeah, didn't NASA get shut down? That has got to be the stupidest thing the Government has ever done.

reply to post by AnnihilateThis


They cancelled the Shuttle. NASA still exists. I also read that this Russian mission will carry a Satelite to Mars for China and it will also have a return vehicle to bring back dirt and rocks from Phobos. If successful this will be an awesome mission. They will bring back the first ever samples from near another moon.

reply to post by Xeven

post by Xeven
I hope it is succesfull and maybe spark our government and people to get excited about space exploration again.

I don't think the American government can afford to get excited about space exploration , but for the people that are interested in space exploration this is good news and something to look forward to , I for one can't wait to see the closeups of Phobos .

Russians are doing a lot of big things in space it is really exciting, including sending another unmanned flight to Venus and if I am not mistaken still trying to figure out how to send men there. (Something I think NASA should try to do but oh well all eye's on an Asteroid). I know Venus is expensive cause of the Caustic atmosphere and pressure but it would be really quite interesting to finally find out what those "metallic" snow peaks are.

Originally posted by AnnihilateThis
Yeah, didn't NASA get shut down? That has got to be the stupidest thing the Government has ever done.

They need to re-structure. They need to be in control of their mandate, but not necessarily every aspect of the how of it.

They can use private enterprise and innovation to accomplish their goals. They need to concentrate on what they do, and out-source everything else they can.


And after that little piece - god damn the USA for shutting down my countries aero-space industry with political threats.

reply to post by Xeven


Launching October 28th? Is there noot a doomsday prediction schedued for that date?

reply to post by gortex


One can look forward to NASA Cassini Saturn probe continued observations, or the Juno probe to Jupiter, or New Horizons to Pluto, or the DAWN mission already at Vesta and later Ceres asteroids, soon to be launched Mars Science Laboratory, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Mars Odyssey, Mars Exploration Rovers, Mars Express, the LRO with the highest resolution images of the moon since Apollo, MESSENGER at Mercury, WISE to find all you planet Xs out there, WIND, WMAP, Spitzer Space Telescope, Hubble space telescope, Kepler, HETE-2, Chandra X-ray Observatory, SOHO and STEREO, not to mention the Voyagers are still out there further than any man made object in space we still have contact with.

If for every space mission another country launches indicates the death of NASA then we are exaggerating a bit. NASA has more current deep space missions than the world combined in history, right now, and also is part of most other country's missions sans Russia, except for the ISS.

Really gets sickening the constant bashing and ignorance displayed every launch. Tell me how will their mission benefit you, will they be as accessible as NASA with the data they collect? Where's all of India's Chandrayaan-1 images at? Where's the Chinese Chang'e I images at?

I am just happy to see humanity exploring space. NASA is great but faces huge cuts with no interest in congress and we the people. If America is going to cut back on it's space program I am happy to see other countries picking up the slack.I am hoping a little competition might get our attention and help us avoid cutting NASA's budget. I am 43, should have seen our first colony out there by now. No reason other than poor presidential leadership that we have not. We have the technology to build a manned solar system exploration ship in orbit, colonies and to put man on other planets and moons. We have just failed to move forward.

Good to see outher Nations getting into the game. I think eventually to survive humanity will need to be spread out in the solar system due to Comet, asteroid impacts etc... Would be nice to have colonies starting up on Mars to ensure we can survive any surprises from various space dangers.

reply to post by Illustronic


You see ,I'm not American so I don't mind where my space information comes from .

post by Illustronic
If for every space mission another country launches indicates the death of NASA then we are exaggerating a bit.

Where did I mention anything proclaiming the death of NASA ?

by Illustronic
Tell me how will their mission benefit you,

It won't "benefit me" at all , but as I said in my post above I would like to see the pictures of Phobos...whats your problem with that

by Illustronic
Where's all of India's Chandrayaan-1 images at?

Where's the Chinese Chang'e I images at?

Search and you will find.
Chandrayaan 1 Images
Chang'e 1 Images

Originally posted by gortex
reply to post by Illustronic

 

post by Illustronic
If for every space mission another country launches indicates the death of NASA then we are exaggerating a bit.

Where did I mention anything proclaiming the death of NASA ?

Not you but every space exploration thread here includes; a( NASA's death and, b) NASA lies, hit and run posts.

by Illustronic
Where's the Chinese Chang'e I images at?

Search and you will find.

Chang'e 1 Images

Seen those, not much there.

Haven't looked at the Chandrayaan 1 Images yet, I wonder if they have the high rez images up.

It would be nice if the Russians give us the kind of NASA access to their Phobos images in some kind of timely manner.

So apologies I vented on your post, and thanks for the Chandrayaan link, I'll have a closer look sometime.

This should show you exactly where America's interest sit. Russia wants to explore space. America wants to wage war. Unreal.

The mission is launching today, according to Google news. I'm surprised that no one on this thread has discussed the possibility that the Russians want to get an up-close look at the Phobos monolith. Information is available on the proposed landing sites, but I haven't researched to see if they are landing anywhere near the monolith site.

I just think it's interesting they chose Phobos after 15 years of no interplanetary missions.

Well, it appears they are not getting anywhere near the Phobos monolith, as the engines failed to fire after leaving the Earth's atmosphere. If this is true, I feel very bad for everyone who worked on this mission, this is a sad loss of time, resources and effort. I hope we can obtain images from the surface of Phobos in my lifetime. Keep your chins up gentlemen! You'll get 'em next time!