China's Mars explorer launched

[anon45]

oh someones here turns into good in when i didn't know that humm!? at least China and Russia shake their hands with each others to make this progress exists, somebody from the outside did nothing but found ways to prevent people and now say so many good things!!!

did I said anything wrong above about those jerks??? NO!!!

Quite frankly I don't understand what you typed. If you're questioning US-Russia cooperation in space, there is a long and documented history of it, even when Russia was the Soviet Union.

NASA - United States-Soviet Space Cooperation during the Cold War

 

[Bharthi]

russia is the only nation that has had more rocket failures than successes.
even those clueless indians are now more reliable than the russians, and indians couldnt make a toy plane to save their life, that just shows how far the russians have fallen.

 

[marshall]

Mars will be habitable with ease. All we'll need to do is salt the Mars oceans with algae and bacteria, and it'll be ready for human habitation in a relatively short time.

So 1.1 billion years from now, everything we love so much about the Earth... all the man-made artifacts, the religious sites, everything, will be scorched and molten and useless, and Mars will be our home. Which is why I have claimed all of Mars, and will be selling 1 acre beachfront lots shortly for only $100 U.S. I accept all major credit cards, as well as PayPal!

There's a theory that Mars once had a much denser atmosphere which eventually dissipated because it lacked a strong magnetic field. This allowed the solar wind to rip away the Martian atmosphere little by little to its present condition today. Either way, I think nuclear powered spacecraft will become common enough and cheap enough in the next 1000 years to make permanent space habitation economically viable for millions of people. That's a long way away from a billion years.

 

[Chogy]

I agree, but my main point was that we'll have no choice in the matter! Whether we do it before then or not, when the sun begins to expand, we'll be forced off the Earth, and that same solar expansion will make Mars habitable.

I'd like to think that in 5 million years, we'll be able to travel the stars anyhow and it won't be critical to use Mars, but not many people know the Earth, as a vessel for life, is probably 7/8ths done. We've had life for maybe 3 billion years, and we'll have it for a few hundred million more at most before the sun kills everything.

 

[anon45]

I agree, but my main point was that we'll have no choice in the matter! Whether we do it before then or not, when the sun begins to expand, we'll be forced off the Earth, and that same solar expansion will make Mars habitable.

I'd like to think that in 5 million years, we'll be able to travel the stars anyhow and it won't be critical to use Mars, but not many people know the Earth, as a vessel for life, is probably 7/8ths done. We've had life for maybe 3 billion years, and we'll have it for a few hundred million more at most before the sun kills everything.

The concern about that is a little far off don't you think?

 

[houshanghai]

Signal picked up from Russia's stranded Mars probe

By Jonathan Amos
Science correspondent, BBC News

Phobos-Grunt is Russia's most ambitious space venture in years
Continue reading the main story
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Contact has finally been made with Russia's troubled Mars mission, says the European Space Agency (Esa).

The agency reports that its tracking station in Perth, Australia, picked up a signal from the Phobos-Grunt probe.

Esa is now working with Russian engineers to see how best to maintain communications with the craft.

Phobos-Grunt has been stuck in Earth orbit since its launch on 9 November, unable to fire the engine that would take it on to Mars.

It raises the hope that Russian controllers can establish what is wrong with the spacecraft and fix it.

Phobos-Grunt still has a short window in which to start its journey before a change in the alignment of the planets makes the distance to the Red Planet too big to cross.

Low power
The European Space Operations Centre (Esoc) in Darmstadt, Germany, reports that the contact was made at 2025 GMT on Tuesday.

The agency had to modify its 15m dish in Perth to get through to Phobos-Grunt. This required widening the antenna's beam to catch the probe in its uncertain orbit.

Perth also reduced the power of the transmission to make it more like the sort of faint X-band signal the craft would expect to hear at Mars.

"We were able to get our transmission in and the commands that were sent then allowed the transmitter on the spacecraft to be turned on; and then we saw the signal coming back into our big dish," explained Dr Klaus-Juergen Schulz, the head of the ground station systems division at Esa-Esoc.

"We also made some radiometric measurements to derive a more precise orbit. This should make it easier to contact Phobos-Grunt in future."

The next pass opportunity is after 2020 [GMT]. At that time, the probe will be in sight of the dish and its solar panels will also be flooded with sunlight to power onboard systems.

All the information gathered in Tuesday night's communication, including telemetry from Phobos-Grunt, has been passed straight to the Russians.

Exciting prospect
The probe was built to land on the larger of Mars' two moons, Phobos, and scoop up rock to bring back to Earth.

Such a venture should yield fascinating new insights into the origin of the 27km-wide object and the planet it circles.

The mission is also notable because China's first Mars satellite, Yinghuo-1, has been launched piggy-back on the main Russian spacecraft.

The 13-tonne mission was initially lifted into a 350km-high orbit above Earth, with the expectation that the probe's big engine would fire twice - first, to raise that orbit, and, second, to set course for Mars.

But for some reason, those engine burns never happened, and Phobos-Grunt has continued to circle the Earth. All efforts to talk with it have failed - until now.

Fortunately, the probe has managed to maintain itself in a stable condition. The perigee of its elliptical orbit (the closest point it comes to Earth) has actually risen slightly, and is just above 200km.

If engineers can keep a communication line open to the craft, they can begin to diagnose its problems.

The best scenario is that the issues are related to a software anomaly, and that engineers can then upload new commands.

But if the fault lies in a hardware malfunction, Phobos-Grunt may still be beyond hope.


Mars probe veers off course


BBC News - Signal picked up from Russia's stranded Mars probe

 

[vtnsx]

@ my Chinese friends: keep humble, don't raise that attitude, the Russians in many ways are better than yours especially in this space industry;indeed they are yours great teachers and friends, please wake up and don't step into the trap that your haters had made up to tear the relation between two great countries China and Russia. The Chinese as I known are very humble and kind heart, you are absolutely difference to your bad neighbors, ungrateful vietnam don't you!? I think the fail is not a big problem if said the Russians can fix it later easily. what a big deal, even Russian with great experiences and capacities in this field but still false sometimes, what if the Chinese making the same later!? humn you got a good reason to defend 4 yourself my Chinese friends!?

but there are some uncertain reasons I wonder about:

- is that caused by some political issues behind the backdoor? is that what the Russian had planned before? they knew it will be failed and they just planned that way! The symbol of cooperation between China-Russia!?

-is there any insurance cover for the satellites? would you get your money back?

I'm applaud. Chinese have been known for being ungrateful for centuries and mellinia. But you have put a very good effort to show them the meaning of moral. So I thank you.

 

[vtnsx]

Right, how about this. Next time do a little research before spouting unsubstantiated garbage out of your mouth. Russia has a number of new rockets as well as some that are under development. Even older Russian rockets are superior to anything most nations can make. And please do inform everyone how 'outdated' Russian 'tech' makes up a large percentage of the ISS?






Again, unsubstantiated verbal sewage. Since when was the KA-52 or the KA-60 ever Soviet? Pak-FA Soviet? Besides air frame what does the SU-35, SU-34 or Mig-35 have anything to do with the Soviet Union? Stay out of topics you have no business in or at least do some research before you look like a fool.





The only thing that is expected is worthless one-liners from you. You do realize that The US has purchased Russian rocket engines as well as electro thermal engines. Not to mention that the US is heavily dependant on the Russian Space Agency to get them to and from the ISS, and some of the critical components from the ISS are Russian--let me make it clear for you the US opted for the Soyuz in the ISS because of its reliability.

It makes me wonder, have any of your posts ever been anything but bias one liners?

The new generation of Chinese kids are immature, ungrateful, foolish and lack of knowledge. The reason for 1 child policy was to reduce its population. These kids were born with disabilities. Forgive these kids, they weren't educated to the international standards. Thus, they could not understand and appreciate the gifts that russia/US has given them that made them who they are today.

 

[feilong]

Is this a good ideas for china? China is developing this on everyone head that orbiting around the earth as an defense against the USA. This known as laser satellite defense system.

 

[FairAndUnbiased]

I agree, but my main point was that we'll have no choice in the matter! Whether we do it before then or not, when the sun begins to expand, we'll be forced off the Earth, and that same solar expansion will make Mars habitable.

I'd like to think that in 5 million years, we'll be able to travel the stars anyhow and it won't be critical to use Mars, but not many people know the Earth, as a vessel for life, is probably 7/8ths done. We've had life for maybe 3 billion years, and we'll have it for a few hundred million more at most before the sun kills everything.

7/8th? That's more optimistic than I am.

I think if we are extremely lucky, humanity might survive 2150. But at this rate, I'd be extremely optimistic if the world can survive to see 2100.

I'd also be surprised if the US can survive past 2025 without fragmenting. There's just way too many factors against the US: US debt crisis that is essentially unfixable, skyrocketing population, the world moving off the US dollar, entrenched military/political/banking elites that have becoming ideologically rigid, the loss of irrigation to the entire Great Plains due to drying fossil aquifers, California, Nevada and Arizona running out of water, the highly energy inefficient low density US urban plan, and peak oil.

China will probably be the last industrial superpower 2020-2070. A nice 50 year reign before climate change wrecks everything. Then probably Canada and Norway would be the last ones standing after a massive nuclear exchange, pandemic and famine over the remaining oil, coal and water.

 

[houshanghai]

The story closes with the hapless sigh


Phobos-Grunt Mars probe falls into Pacific Ocean | Science | The Guardian
Phobos-Grunt Mars probe falls into Pacific Ocean
Russian space agency had previously said that the stricken planetary rocket was most likely to fall into the Atlantic

The Phobos-Grunt probe fell into the Pacific Ocean after failing to make it out of orbit on its planned mission to Mars. Photograph: AP
Debris from a failed Russian spacecraft fell into the Pacific Ocean far off Chile on Sunday, the state-run RIA news agency has quoted a Russian military official as saying.

Pieces of the Phobos-Grunt craft, which never made it out of orbit after its launch on a mission to probe the Martian moon Phobos, fell into the sea 775 miles (1,250 km) west of the coastal island of Wellington, aerospace defence forces spokesman Colonel Alexei Zolotukhin said.

It was not immediately clear whether all of the debris from the craft fell at that location. Russia's space agency Roscosmos had previously said debris was most likely to fall in the Atlantic Ocean.

Many of the major cities in the world had been waiting to see where the space hardware would fall. Due to constant changes in the upper atmosphere, which is strongly influenced by solar activity, the exact time and place of the probe's return had been unknown.

The launcher, the largest planetary rocket built by Roscosmos, was intended to land on Phobos and bring samples back to Earth. The mission also included a Chinese-built orbiter and containers of bacteria to test their survival in space.

The rocket boosters failed to ignite after it had been launched into a parking orbit around Earth in November. Despite repeated attempts to contact it from the ground, Phobos-Grunt remained stuck in orbit and the Russian authorities decided to abandon the mission.

Phobos-Grunt was one of five botched launches last year that marred celebrations of the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's pioneering first human space flight and hurt Moscow's pride.

In an apparent attempt to deflect blame, Russia's space agency chief hinted last week that foreign sabotage might be the reason.

"I don't want to blame anyone, but there are very powerful means to interfere with spacecraft today whose use cannot be ruled out," Vladimir Popovkin told the daily Izvestia.

 

[Donation]

and China dont have any other deep space exploration project in hand, China is on the same league with India in this field, LMAO.

 

[pluto]

it's an attempt. don't blame Russian, China chose her for the cooperation because we don't have the capability as of now.
let's pray for next time, either we do it on our own, or work with Russia. Russia deserve respect, either way.

 

[Gold1010]

Why doesnt the world work together on space?

Is it fear of sharing technology?

Anyway awsome im interested in all things space

 

[kafumanpk]

China's space exploration is to show off.