Fobos-Grunt spacecraft likely to crash to Earth
Baku, December 1 (AZERTAC). Fobos satellite will crash ‘on someone’s head’. Roskosmos does not understand what is happening with Fobos-Grunt spacecraft. Instead of falling, the height of its orbit is increasing. As a result, the estimated time till it crashes back to Earth has been pushed back to the end of February.
The experts are also not receiving any telemetry from the device, and as such, can only hope that it does not crash on someone`s head.
Fragments of the device could fall to Earth during a period from late December through February.
“The device could reenter the atmosphere from the end of December to February. At the moment, this is the forecast,” deputy head of Roskosmos Vitaly Davydov said on Tuesday, Interfax.said.
Experts cannot say what parts of the interplanetary station will fall to Earth. “There is fuel onboard. If there is an explosion - it is one thing, if it just falls apart, and there is no explosion - it is another,” Davydov said.
And he does not exclude the possibility that it could fall “on someone`s head.” “But if we calculate the probability that it will fall on someone`s head, it is practically close to zero” deputy head of Russian Federal Space Agency said.
The space agency said that the area of impact can not be calculated earlier than one day ahead of the crash.
The interplanetary probe was launched on Nov. 9 into Earth orbit, where it remains. The launch went normally, but a propulsion system failed and did not manage to set the satellite on course to Mars.
At the moment the probe is out of contact and is behaving inexplicably. Roskosmos is still hoping to “revive” the machine and send it on its way to Mars.
“There is no telemetry, we just do not understand what is happening,” he said. “The control system can work, maybe something is leaking. Something is not quite right there.”
The information that is available shows that the probe is oriented towards the Sun, but the lack of data does not allow Roskosmos to know the reasons for the device`s behavior.
Davydov did not believe that the mission might still succeed. “We must be realistic. Since we’ve failed to connect in such a long time, the chances that this expedition will succeed are slim,” he said.
However, the optimal “window” for sending the satellite towards the red planet is not yet closed, but the next one opens in two years time.
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