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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."
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
Russia should just admit to its failures, and move on. From what I've read, Russia's high-technology infrastructure is held together with band-aids® and chewing gum. They should concentrate upon repairing their space exploration foundation, then make the attempts to explore Mars.
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.
Basically the guy is blaming HAARP (it happened over Alaska when we couldn't see it).
Right. Now, how did we manage to get the satellite to point it's solar panels away from the sun? It's just the standard post Vodka blame game. I don't think anyone is really worried about it.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
When science from another country fails, it is still a tragedy to the US. We are not in a cold war any more - the loss of a sattelite, or a probe, is a huge loss for everyone. Russia may be upset but unfortunately it would not be in US interests to intentionally destroy a probe that we cannot ourselves replicate (due to lack of funds or lack of interest.)
Occasionally living proof of the Ballmer peak.
Laughable. (Apparently, so is their space program)
Well it's not like their joke of a space program put up the first satellite in orbit, the first man (and woman) in space, the first person to orbit the earth, the first moon probe, the first Mars probe, the first Venus probe, or the first space station--or are currently the only country in the world with the capability of launching humans into space. They're SUCH a joke! Let's all laugh at their weak-ass space program. Ha ha ha.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
One of my co-workers is Russian, and he still keeps in touch with friends and family back home. We've been discussing the recent anti-government protests in Moscow, and he says that the government-controlled media (which includes all of TV and radio, and many of the newspapers) has gone into overdrive accusing the U.S. for being behind almost everything that's currently going wrong in Russia. In his words, "Blaming America is all they have left."
Implying that the U.S. is responsible for their spacecraft failure is just part of that game. Russia has been launching spacecraft for decades, and it is silly to think that they didn't learn how to deal with contingencies such as deliberate jamming long ago.
Russian President Medvedev threatened to prosecute those responsible for the space failures. No surprise that the individuals in question are now looking to blame someone else.
Regrettably, the russians have gone back to that silly Cold War mentality. Their own propaganda tells them constantly that they are unique, superior to the others, and surrounded by vile enemies that miss no chance to do harm to russia. Recall that when their submarine Kursk exploded and sank, the first instinctive reaction of the regime and its propaganda was to blame a US sub for colliding with, and thus sinking, Kursk.
Vladimir Putin (takes his shirt off and shakes fist at the sky): "DAMN YOU PALIN!!!"
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...
point it's solar panels away from the sun?
Well, theoretically, a very strong radar pulse could cause ionization around the star sensors, which would make the spacecraft unable to tell which way was up and which was down. That would screw up the solar cell deployment pretty badly.
That's a crazy scenario, about on par with believing that reptiloids control Switzerland, but like all crazy theories there's a tenuous path of logic behind it.
Genocide Man -- Life is funny. Death is funnier. Mass murder can be hilarious.
The problem with your arguments is that you give the US too much credit. Yes, the US secret services have had lots of involvement in orchestrating stuff in the past, but it seems you are taking it to a "no revolution happens without the US behind it". That's very irrational IMHO. I'm from a country in which the US has meddled in the past and pressed for regime changes, sometimes succesfully. But here people make the same mistake. They think that just because the US has tried and succeeded at *some* regime changes, then it has to be behind *every* regime change/revolution. I think its very counterproductive to think like that, as its a way to perpetuate the myth of North American invencibility.
Let's take a closer look at this list:
1) Sputnik 1 (first satellite): 1957
2) Yuri Gagarin (first man in space, first orbit): 1961
3) Valentina Tereshkova (first woman in space): 1963
4) Luna 2 (first [successful] moon probe): 1959
5) According to Wikipedia, every Soviet Mars mission prior to Mariner 4 (first Mars fly-by [US]) failed.
6) According to Wikipedia, every Soviet Venus mission prior to Mariner 2 (first Venus fly-by [US]) failed.
7) Salyut 1 (first space station): 1971
So other than their currently operating Soyuz craft, the most recent entry on your list is over 40 years old. I understand the point you were trying to make, but you have to keep in mind that things change, and the current Soviet space program is not nearly as noteworthy as the space program you described.
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!"
this in no way sounds like the typical Russian hot-air.
Why in fuck's sake would we (a) sabotage a scientific mission, and (b) piss off the people who carry us to the ISS?
Chances are reasonable, intentional or otherwise, one of these stations may have unduly influenced the operation of their rocket.
Do you have *any* rational evidence to support this hooch-addled paranoia?
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
"Chances are reasonable, intentional or otherwise, one of these stations may have unduly influenced the operation of their rocket."
Actually that's insane. What is the (a) physics of doing so? (Heating the atmosphere over a wide patch is what they do to study ionosphere) What's the cross section of power applied directly on the satellite? Notice that when you want to aim something precisely (and hitting a satellite in orbit requires LOTS of precision) you need to use short wavelengths, like say an optical laser, and then you have to precisely compensate for atmospheric aberrations. The radio research facilities instead use wavelengths of a number of meters long, which of course diffracts and spreads out just a wee bit more.
And then what is (b) the motivation for doing so? In detail. Screwing with a scientific probe going to Mars? Dr Strangelove types aren't particularly impressed or care about some nerd spacecraft. What's in it for The Conspirators?
c) "there are powerful interests in the US who absolutely do not want to rely on Russia for space access" -- but are apparently insufficiently powerful to get the USA to spend the money to fund ongoing operations and develop the next generation simultaneously. Well, since in your conspiracy theory the US *is* in fact dependent on Russia, then why sabotage Russian rockets? Why not sabotage Russian rockets only after the US gets its space access back?
And besides, the US is is not dependent on Russia for space access overall: the military and intelligence communities happily continue to buy launches on expensive Boeing/Lockheed ULA rockets, it's just that NASA can't afford (isn't given funding for) these ones and will have to hitch rides on bargain basement SpaceX hardware in a few years.