Russian Space Probe Stuck in Earth’s Orbit Carries Toxic Chemicals
- Posted on November 9, 2011 at 4:27pm by
Liz Klimas
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MOSCOW (The Blaze/AP) — The Russian Federal Space Agency has the worst luck with getting equipment to and from Mars. Since the 1960 only two of its 18 unmanned missions to Mars have been completely successful. It it is rushing to right another mission gone awry.
A space probe became stuck in Earth’s orbit Wednesday after an equipment failure, raising fears it could come crashing down and spill tons of highly toxic fuel on Earth unless engineers can steer it back to its flight path.
Is this artist rendition of the Phobos-Grunt probe nearing Mars' moon as close as it will ever really get? (Image: Roscosmos via Space.com)
James Oberg, a NASA veteran who has written books on the Russian space program and who now works as a space consultant, said it’s still possible to regain control over the probe.
“This is not an impossible challenge,” Oberg said in an email to The Associated Press. “Nothing irreversibly bad has happened, the full propellant load is still available, and short-term ‘stay healthy’ maneuvers can be performed” like deploying the craft’s solar panels to boost its power.
He warned, however, that if controllers failed to bring the Phobos-Ground back to life, the tons of highly toxic fuel it carries would turn it into the most dangerous spacecraft ever to fall from orbit. The U.S. space agency and other space debris experts are far less worried. They believe the fuel will probably explode harmlessly in Earth’s upper atmosphere.
The spacecraft was headed for one of Mars’ two moons when it developed technical problems.
U.S. space and Defense Department officials are tracking it. Officials at NASA in Washington figure it will be at least a week, maybe more, before the errant space probe falls back to Earth, if it does. The Russians are trying to get it back on course.
NASA chief debris scientist Nicholas Johnson says the spacecraft’s orbit is already starting to degrade slightly.
“From the orbits we’re seeing from the U.S. Space Surveillance Network, it’s going to be a couple weeks before it comes in,” Johnson said Wednesday afternoon. “It’s not going to be that immediate.”
The unmanned $170 million Phobos-Ground craft was successfully launched by a Zenit-2 booster rocket just after midnight Moscow time Wednesday (2016 GMT Tuesday) from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. It separated from the booster about 11 minutes later and was supposed to fire its engines twice to set out on its path toward Mars, but never did. The craft was aiming to get ground samples from Phobos, one of Mars’ two moons.
(Photo: Roscosmos via Space.com)
The mishap was the latest in a series of recent Russian failures that have raised concerns about the condition of the country’s space industries.
Federal Space Agency chief Vladimir Popovkin said neither of the two engine burns worked, probably because the craft’s orientation system failed. He said engineers have three days to reset and fix the spacecraft’s computer program before its batteries die – but the space agency later said the probe’s orbit and its power sources could allow it to circle the Earth for about two weeks.
Russia news agencies cited space experts who offered widely varying estimates of how long the craft could stay in orbit before crashing down – from five days to one month.
“About seven tons of nitrogen teroxide and hydrazine, which could freeze before ultimately entering, will make it the most toxic falling satellite ever,” he said. “What was billed as the heaviest interplanetary probe ever may become one of the heaviest space derelicts to ever fall back to Earth out of control.”
Oberg said such a crash could cause significantly more damage than the Russian Mars-96 that crashed in the Andes Mountains or the American USA 193 spy satellite that was shot down by a U.S. Navy missile in 2008 to prevent it from splashing its toxic fuel.
The Russian rescue effort Wednesday was being hampered by a limited earth-to-space communications network that already forced flight controllers to ask people in South America to help find the spacecraft. Amateur astronomers were the first to spot the trouble when they detected the craft was stuck in an Earth orbit.
The Phobos-Ground was Russia’s first interplanetary mission since a botched 1996 robotic mission to Mars, which failed when the probe crashed shortly after the launch due to an engine failure.
The spacecraft is 13.2 metric tons (14.6 tons), with fuel accounting for a large share of its weight. It was manufactured by the Moscow-based NPO Lavochkin, which specializes in interplanetary vehicles.
Data Russia shared with NASA shows that about 11 metric tons of the spacecraft is fuel, Johnson said. The key is whether that fuel remains in liquid form or freezes. If it’s liquid it would harmlessly blow up about 50 miles (80 kilometers) above ground, Johnson said. But if frozen, it could fall to Earth posing more of a hazard.
Most U.S. space debris experts believe it will likely stay liquid.
“We’ve had much larger objects than this come down and not have a problem,” said William Ailor of the Aerospace Corp.’s Center for Orbital and Reentry Debris Studies.
The company also designed the craft for Russia’s botched 1996 launch and the two probes sent to Phobos in 1988, which also failed. One was lost a few months after the launch due to an operator’s mistake, and contact was lost with its twin when it was orbiting Mars.
The Russian space agency responded to the failures by promising to establish its own quality inspection teams at rocket factories to tighten oversight over production quality.
In contrast with the failures that dogged Soviet and Russian efforts to explore Mars, a succession of NASA’s landers and rovers, including Spirit and Opportunity, have successfully studied the Red Planet.
If Russian space experts manage to fix the Phobos-Ground, it should reach Mars orbit in September 2012 and land on Phobos in February 2013. The return vehicle is expected to carry up to 200 grams (7 ounces) of ground samples from Phobos back to Earth in August 2014.
It is arguably the most challenging unmanned interplanetary mission ever. It requires a long series of precision maneuvers for the probe to reach the potato-shaped moon measuring just 20 kilometers (over 12 miles) in diameter, land on its cratered surface, scrape it for samples and fly back.
Scientists had hoped that studies of Phobos’ surface could help solve the mystery of its origin and shed more light on the genesis of the solar system. Some believe Phobos is an asteroid captured by Mars’ gravity, while others think it’s debris from when Mars collided with another celestial object.
China contributed to the mission by adding a mini-satellite that is to be released when the craft enters an orbit around Mars on its way to Phobos. The 115-kilogram (250-pound) satellite, Yinghuo-1, will become the first Chinese spacecraft to explore Mars, studying the planet during two years in orbit.
Here is footage of yesterday’s launch:
This article has been updated for clarity.
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Comments (39)
SamIamTwo
Posted on November 10, 2011 at 9:57pmwonder if the administration is rethinking shutting down NASA launches. Their tech is still air to mud. I’d not climb aboard one of those.
Report Post »teamarcheson
Posted on November 11, 2011 at 9:05pmYea, nuclear reactors using Plutonium are toxic. Its a nuclear ion drive engine that can make the trip in 90 days. NASA designed the ion drive engine back in the 60s but Democrats refused to fund it. Russia and China do not have Democrats in their governments.
Only TEA will set you free now.
Report Post »HawkEyeTx
Posted on November 10, 2011 at 4:46pm#
Report Post »I thought most of the junk would burn up on re-entry so how did it freeze?
Having said that…I ain’t no rocket scientist.
Chris
Posted on November 11, 2011 at 1:41amIf the batteries die or the heaters on the propellant tanks aren’t working the hydrazine and possibly the nitrogen tetroxide can freeze while the probe is still in orbit, before reentry. The issue then is that the frozen fuel may very well survive reentry and you get ****** of really nasty stuff getting to the ground. If it doesn’t freeze than it probably burns or explodes during reentry, which is a lot safer.
Report Post »SgtB
Posted on November 10, 2011 at 3:46pmWhy is this an issue? Are we really worried about a couple tons of fuel in the air or on the ground? Do any of you work in manufacturing? Chemistry? Anything involving dangerous substances? Do you know what happens to all of the solvents that go to waste and cannot be recycled? They go into big evaporators and from there they go into the atmosphere. It has long been that dillution is the answer to pollution. We pump more crap into the air every day than this one botched rocket could ever hope to produce.
So I say we all just calm down, sit back, and let the US military use it as a target for our plane based laser systems. OR, we could just track it and warn people to stay indoors where it should fall.
Report Post »Arshloch
Posted on November 10, 2011 at 2:51pmOnly to be expected, looking at past performance.
Report Post »pavepaws
Posted on November 10, 2011 at 4:06pmI’m sure that when they are responsible for our space program, like launching our astronauts and equipment into space; they’ll be more carefull……………………….Not.
Report Post »lokiwwide
Posted on November 10, 2011 at 12:39pmWhy can’t we just blow their space and earth probe !!? They don’t serve the purpose of human beings..
Report Post »Brady
Posted on November 10, 2011 at 11:42amWho edits this stuff? You guys hiring? Sheesh… it’s “awry” not “a rye!” In the first damn paragraph, too! It almost made me miss the rest of the article…
Report Post »don young
Posted on November 10, 2011 at 10:59amDid you even think they can make it come down werever they want and say were sorry it was an accident.
Report Post »Ruler4You
Posted on November 10, 2011 at 11:15amAlmost every satellite has some toxic materials on board. Usually, the battery or power source is the problem. It’s as risky going up as it is coming down.
Report Post »Lotus503
Posted on November 10, 2011 at 10:13amMaybe it’ll come down on Iran…
Report Post »djmaine
Posted on November 10, 2011 at 9:35amNo problem!…We’ll just intercept it with the SPACE SHUTTLE and fix things…OH…that‘s right we don’t have a space shuttle anymore. You know, now that we have a bajillion satellites in orbit we might want to have some sort of bailout.
Report Post »stormerwasright
Posted on November 10, 2011 at 9:25amHow about a friendly gesture AND a test of our missile defense system ? Offer to blow it out of the sky for them…
Report Post »mrawfull
Posted on November 10, 2011 at 9:19amMaybe Russia should concentrate more on becoming a civilized developed country first, instead of sending junk into space. They are still stuck in the 19th century and are trying to run a space program, how embarrassing is that?
Report Post »ObserverOnTheHill
Posted on November 10, 2011 at 6:51amI’m glad Barry has NASA working on Muslim outreach instead of silly space stuff. It’s obvious to me now that renting payload lift from the Russians makes fiscal sense – to him – as he wants to flush as much of our tax dollars as possible in order to bring the country down.
Report Post »poorrichard09
Posted on November 10, 2011 at 8:00amSure have been a lot of satellites falling back to earth lately. With any luck, this will land on Moscow!
Report Post »Eliasim
Posted on November 10, 2011 at 8:57amMay it land on those who launched it.
Report Post »jzs
Posted on November 10, 2011 at 9:00amThe lead states, “It it is rushing to right another mission gone a rye.“ The correct word is ”awry.” Rye is a kind of bread.
Report Post »endgamer
Posted on November 10, 2011 at 6:50amBlaze.. Tell your editor that “A rye” is spelled “Awry”.
Report Post »texasderek
Posted on November 10, 2011 at 11:34amlol… I caught that “gone a rye” too… maybe he was using speech to text technology… still funny though.
Report Post »southernORcobra
Posted on November 10, 2011 at 6:43amthis has future zombe outbreak written all over it prepare!!!
Report Post »9111315
Posted on November 10, 2011 at 7:56amYou need to stay in reality.. .. .. wait. Actually, that is a good point.
Report Post »richard the lion-hearted
Posted on November 10, 2011 at 5:03pmFamiliar with the Holy Bible? Revelations? Wormwood? I’m just saying…
Report Post »quicker
Posted on November 10, 2011 at 6:28amIf we still had a shuttle we could have boosted it to a higher orbit.
Report Post »PAUL GULLO
Posted on November 10, 2011 at 6:01amthe hypergolic chemicals used for adjustment burns are not as big a threat as the miniture nuclear reactor with 20kilos of uranium used to convert the heat energy of the depleting uranium into power through a heat exchanger, to power their expiraments. and even that is not a threat, unless it lands in your yard. and if you dont think we know where its gonna crash if it does, you are wrong.
Report Post »i recomend turning on every light in your house and celebrateing electricity, go yellew, happy yellow.
GETLIFE
Posted on November 10, 2011 at 3:43amSo the mission has gone a rye! I suppose this is a clever reference to the kind of alcohol the Russian mission specialists drink too much of….
Report Post »Soul Leister
Posted on November 10, 2011 at 2:20amI hear they asked Obama’s opinion and he said, “its Bush’s fault”. Go figure.
Report Post »MB1
Posted on November 10, 2011 at 2:15amwhat a bunch of morons
Report Post »NI6HTHAWK
Posted on November 10, 2011 at 1:56am“The Russian space agency responded to the failures by promising to establish its own quality inspection teams at rocket factories to tighten oversight over production quality”
Oh Russian quality inspection teams, okay, problem solved!
Report Post »Soul Leister
Posted on November 10, 2011 at 2:19amWill they be the same “rocket scientists” that thought nuclear power plant inspectors would be a good idea “after” chernobol??? All we have to do is wait for that atomic bomb to accidentally go off and they will eventually rush to provide some over sight there too, I am sure.
Report Post »sillyfreshness
Posted on November 10, 2011 at 1:18amIf NASA says there’s nothing to worry about if this crashes back to earth, then you better worry!!!
Report Post »pamela kay
Posted on November 10, 2011 at 2:42amI’m worried. Hopefully it will fall somewhere useful. Just sayin
Report Post »Truthmonster
Posted on November 10, 2011 at 1:11amI hope it falls on Putin arrogant heathen. Quit picking on Obama Putin. He can’t defend himself.
Report Post »shogun459
Posted on November 10, 2011 at 12:33amRemember, These are the guys we have to hitch a ride with from now on.
Astronauts wont be able to buy life insurance for love or money.
Report Post »Junter
Posted on November 10, 2011 at 12:33amHey China want to get the job done? Go American.
Report Post »hans gruber
Posted on November 10, 2011 at 12:21amCol. Mustard and Gen. Pastrami caused it to go a rye. Thank you! Thank you!
Ahem… I hope you meant “awry.”
Report Post »KAdams
Posted on November 10, 2011 at 1:09amShucks… I was too slow. You mean, it didn’t go a-pumpernickel?
Report Post »