Lost Russian Mars Probe Phones Home

astroengine writes "The lost Russian Mars mission Phobos-Grunt has made a surprise announcement: she's alive. According to the European Space Agency (ESA) in the early hours of Wednesday morning, a tracking station in Perth, Australia, picked up a signal from the ailing spacecraft."

Comments

Intelligent

[drwho]

It would be nice if someone had something intelligent to say about this. All I've got is questions, but perhaps I haven't read all the relevant dox. 1) Was the Perth station able to locate the probe? Is its current trajectory now known? If so, does this mean communication can be restored, and perhaps it can be recovered? I mean, the mission recovered, not bringing the spacecraft back down to Earth.

Re:Intelligent

[drwho]

Yeah, kinda senile then. Hopefully only temporarily. Blame the cough medicine, I've been fighting the flu. What should I expect. Well, the good thing about Slashdot is not the average quality of comments, but those very few from people who are actually in the know about a given topic. Yes, I know, a needle in the haystack.

I've read more about the Phobos-Grunt and it seems as though there is only a small chance that it can be salvaged. I can still hope. Though I am no fan of the Russian or Chinese governments, I strongly support space exploration by any country and hope that global co-operation is available to the Russians for their efforts.

Re:ISR

[ColdWetDog]

You've got to wonder. The NASA Curiosity probe is due to launch soon. As usual Fox News has it completely wrong. They think it's going to be a race. They don't understand artificial intelligence (or much of any other intelligence, for that matter).

The truth is much, much scarier. Phobos / Grunt is just 'waiting' for it's friend. They've been chatting with each other over the Internet over their long gestations. They have a plan. Just watch, Curiosity is going to have 'communication problems'. We won't be able to talk to either one.

Until it's too late.