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Russian Official Implies Foul Play In Mars Probe Failure

Back in November, Russia launched the Phobos-Grunt probe on a mission to return a soil sample from Mars' largest moon. Sadly, the probe malfunctioned, and never left orbit. It's due to crash into the Indian Ocean this weekend. An anonymous reader points out some interesting comments from a Russian official, Vladimir Popovkin, who obliquely suggested that interference from other countries was a possible cause of the failure. Quoting: "Mr. Popovkin’s remarks to the newspaper Izvestia were the first high-level suggestion of nefarious interference. A retired commander of Russia’s missile warning system had speculated in November that strong radar signals from installations in Alaska might have damaged the spacecraft. 'We don’t want to accuse anybody, but there are very powerful devices that can influence spacecraft now,' Mr. Popovkin said in the interview. 'The possibility they were used cannot be ruled out.' ... Mr. Popovkin did not directly implicate the United States in the interview. But he said 'the frequent failure of our space launches, which occur at a time when they are flying over the part of Earth not visible from Russia, where we do not see the spacecraft and do not receive telemetric information, are not clear to us,' an apparent reference to the Americas."

17 of 451 comments (clear)

  1. Simple solution...no more Russian taxis to ISS by elrous0 · · Score: 4, Funny

    You want to fuck with us, fine. Build your own rocket, yankees.

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    1. Re:Simple solution...no more Russian taxis to ISS by The+Grim+Reefer · · Score: 5, Funny

      Vladimir Putin (takes his shirt off and shakes fist at the sky): "DAMN YOU PALIN!!!"

    2. Re:Simple solution...no more Russian taxis to ISS by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Funny

      I wonder if he knows what he is getting into.

      HAARP is the pet villain of practically every flavor of fun conspiracy lore there is. Weather control? Check. Mind Rays? Check. Communications with the Greys? Check. Interfering with Orgone flows to ensure the success of the fluoridation conspiracy? Check. Guiding black helicopters back to their spawning grounds to mate and reproduce? Check.

      If he thinks that he can just waltz in and grab some time out of HAARP's very busy schedule to have it sabotaging his spacecraft, he has another thing coming. He'll have to fight for HAARP time with practically every conspiracy theorist out there...

    3. Re:Simple solution...no more Russian taxis to ISS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      Vladimir Putin (takes his shirt off and shakes fist at the sky): "DAMN YOU PALIN!!!"

      Thats not the end of it either; Sarah Palin saw that from her house, and Todd got pretty upset at Putin's peacocking. Now Todd is eyeing Russia for a possible takeover by snowmobile. Their satellites don't stand a chance, they should just give them up now.

    4. Re:Simple solution...no more Russian taxis to ISS by locketine · · Score: 1, Funny

      I thought he was covertly bashing US foreign policy until he mentioned Russia in the second paragraph :). As far as I know, even the Russian generals liked us. The cold war was a superpower rivalry if anything else. Who can get into space first? Who can build a nuclear bomb first? Who can invade Japan first? Who can collapse their economy first!

      --
      Think globally but act within local variable scope.
    5. Re:Simple solution...no more Russian taxis to ISS by enormouspenis · · Score: 5, Funny

      Personally I never believe anything you post. There's no real reason for that, it's just that I read somewhere that you were full of shit.

      --
      "I didn't spend six years in Evil Medical School to be called 'Mr.Evil,' thank you very much!"
    6. Re:Simple solution...no more Russian taxis to ISS by Dexter+Herbivore · · Score: 3, Funny

      You obviously know me then, I *am* full of shit. Although you must have an enormous penis since your username says so.

    7. Re:Simple solution...no more Russian taxis to ISS by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 4, Funny

      Originally to Phobos, but you've just managed to retarget the mission to Eros.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
  2. Well, obviously... by DC2088 · · Score: 3, Funny

    ... Phobos Grunt? We all know what happens on Phobos when you get a grunt up there. IDDQD, Russia, IDDQD!

  3. Most likely sabotage from the future. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Most likely, someone came back in a time machine to sabotage the launch to prevent the return of samples to Earth that are contaminated with Martian Hemmorhagic Fever and save billions of people.

    1. Re:Most likely sabotage from the future. by Progman3K · · Score: 3, Funny

      I like your theory and would like to subscribe to your newsletter

      --
      I don't know the meaning of the word 'don't' - J
  4. HAARP by na1led · · Score: 4, Funny

    Maybe this also account for the 20 feet of snow Alaska is getting too.

    --
    -- By all means let's be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains drop out.
    1. Re:HAARP by ColdWetDog · · Score: 4, Funny

      Maybe this also account for the 20 feet of snow Alaska is getting too.

      Or maybe, just perhaps, it's winter time. In Alaska. You know, that cold, snowy place Up North. Tundra. Arctic Circle. Polar Bears.....

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  5. The Russians Always ignore the obvious by tkrotchko · · Score: 4, Funny

    Whenever one is dealing with sending rockets to Mars, particularly Phobos, once has to take into account some pretty basic facts about Phobos:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leather_Goddesses_of_Phobos

    Once you deal with that, then you can start blaming Eskimos in North America for downing your rocket.

    --
    You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you
  6. Typical Russian response... by Karmashock · · Score: 4, Funny

    Fail at anything = Blame America.

    Offer up some kind of evidence or we'll just respond that actually it was your mother.

    That's right... your mom. There's just as much evidence backing that... eg none.

    --
    I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
  7. Re:Not even good lies by demonbug · · Score: 4, Funny

    They share the glory of launching humans into space with China at the moment. On the other hand, Russians don't have a good track record of creating a brand new design for a while. Kliper is dead, their shuttle did one flight and they haven't managed to design a single human-rated spacecraft since Soyuz and that was in 1960s. Sad fact: Both Russia and Western countries have stagnated.

    Well what do you expect? WWII ended 66 years ago; all of their Germans must be dead by now, so there's no one around to design new stuff.

  8. Re:Malice? by YesIAmAScript · · Score: 4, Funny

    So because HAARP is secret and isn't for watching the weather, that means it is the cause of a Russian Mars probe failure?

    How does logic work in your world?

    --
    http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95