My top 5 favourite films of 2011

1. Transformers: Dark of the Moon

2. Paul

3. Super 8

4. The Thing

5. Paranormal Activity 3

Five teenagers have been jailed for  killing 15-year-old Zac Olumegbon, who was stabbed to death as soon as he arrived at school! The killers were only 15-17 years of age at the time, and they murdered Zac outside Park Campus School in West Norwood, London, in July 2010.

Within moments of being caught after he fled he lay dying in a garden not far form the school! He had been stabbed four times, two of the wounds piercing his heart.

The court heard how the gang of youths were armed with at least two knives and had deliberately been driven to the school to attack Zac! Helder Demorais, 18, Ricardo Giddings, 17, Jamal Moore, 17, and Kyle Kinghorn, 18, were all convicted of murder and given prison sentences ranging from 14 to 18 years. Shaquille Haughton, 16, was guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to 12 years. Obviously she didn't do as much as they did or maybe she was lucky which she didn't deserve as, truthfully, she killed someone!

The five murderers were members of the GAS (Gunds And Shanks) gang from Brixton. Zac was with the rival TN1 (Trust No One) gang from Tulse Hill.

Zac died from the attack.

THE HOBBIT Trailer

The Dark Knight Rises Trailer

Santa - Does he make a difference?

As Christmas approaches the excitement arises, especially for younger children. As you get older the anticipation of the 25th deteriorates. Is this due to belief?

Once we stop believing in Santa Claus the magic seems to disappear. Is there a connection? Some people claim so. They say that as soon as you stop believing it is no longer fun! But does it really matter about how presents get to you and your family? After all - that is not what Christmas is about. It is for Christians to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. It is for spending time with family and loved ones. So does it really matter?

BBC Propaganda Advertisement 3

The final of three BBC Advertisements I am posting. This one is packed full of festive cheer and features many famous British faces.

BBC Propaganda Advertisement 2

A BBC television spot featuring many of the British Broadcasting Corporation's best TV programmes. Each clip has been expertly placed to be synchronised with the music, which is performed by the comedy legends, Morecambe and Wise.

BBC Propaganda Advertisement 1

The BBC, it seems, has recently rolled out more adverts than TV shows. This is an example of the powerful TV spots that the British Broadcasting Corporation have produced to sustain the public's interest in the BBC. This features David Attenborough of 85, who apparently is leaving the BBC forever.

Attenborough's latest show, 'Frozen Planet' was under fire recently as it was discovered that the Polar Bear Cubs, (seen at 1:35 in this video), were not actually from the arctic at all, but were from a Dutch Zoo. The show had 8 million viewers... no surprise, then, that this caused some furory.

The Discovery Channel will be running their own version of 'Frozen Planet', but have decided not to trust David Attenborough as the presenter. Instead, they have opted for Alec Baldwin, an American actor.

Official Expendables 2 Poster

New Hunger Games Poster

New Amazing Spider-Man Images

New Avengers Banners

Transformers The Ride at Universal Studios Singapore

A Great night for DCS!

Tuesday the 13th of December, at 7 o'clock in the main hall, gathered students from all years to perform what they had learnt and practised in their own time or in lesson time. All the performances that were put togther made a mini Creative Concert for Dinnington Comprehensive School. The evening included students that performed pieces of hilarious drama, talanted music, amazing pieces art and some wonderful media that was put togther on a presentation that was shown at the start of the night.

There were refreshments and a raffle that also popped up in the "mini" concert and there was around 2-3 breaks for the acts to get sorted out and ready for when it was their time to perform. Also there were some students who sung some songs for the audience throughout the evening. All shows have presenters, and in this show were 2 boys from our school who offered to be the presenters like they have done in the past. And 'oh boy' did they entertain the audience! The night was at a high when the last act appeared and this made everybody in the hall laugh, it was play, Cindreralla! Throughout the play there wasn't one part where you couldn't hear people laughing. What a way to end a fabulous night! Overall, in my opinion, it was a huge success and I enjoyed every minute of it!

By Emily Booker SLWA

It's Christmas!

Snow has fallen - verification that Christmas is only 10 days away! People woke up shocked to discover that at least 2 inches of snow had been left overnight.
Most people love snow because of the feeling of Christmas spirit it brings and the time off of school it sometimes creates and even every now and again when your parents are in a good mood and take you sledging down a big hill! On the other hand some people disagree as it gets in the way of appointments, schedules and normal life. It is especially hard for the elderly and disabled but even more so when it is unexpected!

With only one school day left until the holidays everyone is getting excited about St.Nick's visit to the good children. Merry Christmas everyone! But before you go, ask yourself - Is snow good or bad?

By Maisie Waring SCHE

Weather at Christmas!

Suprisingly this morning it started to snow. It's beggining to look alot like Christmas. Most people love the snow because they only get the chance to play in it once a year but unfortunately other people don't like snow seems as it stops them earning money as they can not get to work.

Once snow is formed it either changes in to black ice or slush, for this reason it stops cars getting to places, especially when they need to be in a certain area. On the other hand snow can be a delight for children. This is because they get to miss school, they have something to do without been stuck inside also they can make interesting igloos and snowmen pluss sledding down a big hill.

Snow only occurs a couple of times a year, sometimes it may be a couple of feet and others it may be less than an inch.

What do you think of snow, is it a good thing or is it a bad thing?

The Expendables 2: Official Trailer

Star Wars: The Old Republic

New Mission Impossible Clip

First Official Gangster Squad Pic

A film about the LAPD's fight to keep East Coast Mafia types out of Los Angeles in the 1940s and 50s. It stars Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone and Sean Penn. Gangster Squad will be released on the 9th November 2012

Amazing Spider-Man Teaser Poster Online

'G.I. Joe: Retaliation'

Transformers: Fall of Cybertron - Cinematic Trailer

Transformers: Fall of Cybertron is the sequel to War for Cybertron, the highest rated Transformers game ever. Coming Fall 2012 for Xbox 360 & PS3.

New Dark Knight Rises Teaser Poster

MEN IN BLACK 3 - Official Trailer

And the winner is... LITTLE MIX!

So, it's no secret that Little Mix are The X Factor 2011 winners!

They are not only the most successful girl group the show has ever seen, they are also the first group to win the talent contest!

They fought Marcus Collins into second place and comeback girl Amelia Lily into third.

Congratulations to Jesy Nelson, Perrie Edwards, Leigh-Anne Pinnock and Jade Thirlwall -- we will be hearing much more from you!

Happy Feet 2 Released!

Happy Feet Two is sequel from Happy Feet.This film tells Mumble and Gloria's son, Erik is reluctant to trying dancing as most of the penguins in Emperor land do.Erik's first attempt at dancing embarrasses and outcast him from the rest of the penguins.

Erik and his two new friends, Boadicea and Atticus follow Ramon to Adelie Land.Upon returning,Ramon learns that Adelie land has been ruled by Mighty Sven ,a penguin who can fly.Sven is the last of his kind who survived death by his ability to fly.

Click the link below to watch the Happy Feet 2 trailer...
Happy Feet 2 Trailer

By Emily Booker SLWA

The Thing Film Review

At an Antarctic research site, they have discovered an alien craft and a shape-shifting alien. What could possibly go wrong?

I'm a huge fan of John Carpenters The Thing (1982). I thought is was amazing; the plot, the acting, the music, and the special affects were perfect. So I was really excited to seen a newer version of it, but I had low expectations as I thought that nothing could top John's The Thing; and I was right. This film is a good film, I would recommend watching it in the cinema and maybe getting it on DVD. It has a similar plot but contains a lot more jumpy bits. I love the idea that you can't trust anyone as throughout the film your asking yourself who the alien is, which is great fun. This is a prequel to theJohn Carpenters film which I think is a great idea but we see a lot of the same things which bored me. The special affects in this are okay but sometimes the CGI looked unrealistic. What I like the most was how it ended, which was when Johns films starts.

I give it a 6.5 out of 10

Madagascar - Escape Africa

One bizarre lemur had left Madagascar in search of a new life in London; with massive consequences. Vets were stunned when a ring-tailed lemur was found suffering from hypothermia in sub-zero temperatures on the night of December 6th, 2011. The primate, who had been named King Julien after the character from the movie Madagascar, has been given a clean bill of health and is now waiting for a more suitable habitat.

The lemur was found in Tooting Common, London. Nurses at Blue Cross Animal Hospital were initially worried for King Julien's health, as he would not eat or drink anything. Luckily, they managed to tempt him with some honey dropped through a syringe. The charity say there in no way in knowing how a lemur ended up in London's streets. They originate from Madagascar, and require a special license to own. Maybe, as the movie suggests, they are slightly smarter than they look!

Battleship Official Trailer 2

Here we go again...

Intense siesmic activity hundreds of meters below the surface of one of Iceland's largest glaciers could potentially indicate that yet another volcanic eruption could be imminent, experts suggest. The Katla volcano is long overdue, and may cause the largest eruption that the country has seen in a century.

Reports of 500 tremors in October alone is worryingly unusual, and could suggest the movement of magma. The volcano holds an impressive record of being totally destructive, unimaginably powerful and highly active. Thanks to extensive evidence that has been documented for the past 1,000 years, volcanologists can predict that it usually erupts every 40 to 80 years. The last major eruption occured in 1918, and caused an extremely large glacier meltdown; ice bergs were swept into the ocean by the resulting floods. The largest eruption occured in 1755, when the amount of water produced was equal to all of the worlds largest rivers combined.

The volcano cannot be underestimated. Especially when you think back to the "small" eruption that shut down the worlds airports for a week last year. Of course, volcanoes are erupting around the world constantly; scientists are particuarly curious about an underwater volcano which is creating new land. But this could be bigger, stronger and (given that the volcano hasn't errupted in over 90 years) ultimatley more powerful than anything we've seen.

Look Up!

Astronomers in Australia, Asia and Northern America are hoping for a glimpse of a total lunar eclipse set to take place today at 11:33, lasting until 17:30. This will be the second lunar eclipse this year, and the last until 2014, making 2011 a brilliant year for star watchers everywhere.

Just to clarify, a lunar eclipse takes place when the earth casts a shadow over the moon. Sunlight shining over the moon illuminates it a violent shade of red. Unfortunatley, Britain will be unable to see it in it's full glory. However, we may be able to see the moon as it rises. Fingers crossed.

One stormy night...

The outrageous storm in Scotland, which whipped up hurricane-speed winds, was not just limited to the mainland. Two vessels were caught up in the weather with large loads of precious oil on-board. Efforts to stabilise the ships have paid off.

The Apollo Spirit lost tension in one of it's eight anchors, whilst carrying a heavy 96,300 tonnes of oil. The ship remained securely in position. However the Banff lost tension in half of it's anchors, leaving it completely powerless! While none of the 4,400 tonnes of crude oil was lost, the ship did move 70 metres from it's original position. There is no report of any pollution, and the 67 petrified people aboard the two vessels made it safely back to shore.

Arthur Christmas!

Christmas is approaching and what better to do than to go and see a christmas movie at the cinema! Well Arthur Christmas has to be one of the most recommended kid Christmas films around!

The story of Arthur Christmas revolves around the current Santa Claus, his wife, his two sons Arthur and Steve, and their grandfather, Grand-Santa. Set on Christmas Eve night, the film opens with a set of elves sitting behind their computers in the command center of Santa's gigantic, ultra-high-tech sleigh titled the S-1.

While Santa and the elves deliver presents to children using fancy advanced equipment and military precision, Santa's oldest son Steve manages the operation at mission control, alongside his obsequious assistant Peter. However, his clumsy younger brother Arthur, who is assigned to handling childrens' letters in the mail department, inadvertently disrupts operations when he enters mission control to place some correspondence and a present falls out of the system as a result.

To see a trailer of Arthur Christas, click the link below:
Arthur Christmas Trailer (Youtube)

By Emily Booker SLWA

School Closing Times...

For all DCS Students again, next Friday, ( Friday the 16th of December) is the last day of school before the Christmas holiday.


For those who do not know, you go to your form normal time in the morning, then it is extended form time so you will be spending longer in form than you usally do.

Once that is over you go to yor period 1 class as normal, then your 2nd period, then break. After break go to period 3 as normal, then once you have had lunch you go back to your form, and from then it's up to your form teacher what you do until it is time to leave at 2:10 pm.

By Emily Booker SLWA

Festive Cheer? Not so sure...

If you'd just reluctantly handed over 26,774 of your hard-earned British pounds to light up your town in festive cheer, you would expect the things to work when you switced them on. Residents of Aylesbury were rather unimpressed when faulty lights left Santa with no face, Rudolph with one antler and the entire town looking rather neglected.

The lights have been described as scary rather than cheerful. One counciller mentioned that "the lights look like a mere afterthought, and look as though they have been used, year by year, without any attention given to how they look". Maybe next Christmas? Or maybe not...

Oops! We crashed the ferrari!

Accidents on motorways are commonly repeated over and over by news reporters everywhere. We probably hear the phrase "There's been an accident on..." at least once a day. However, not all of them are quite as spectacular as this...

The Chugoku Expressway in Japan held one of the most expensive pile-ups in history. No less than 10 of the most sough-after cars were involved. 8 Ferraris, a Lamboghini Diablo and a Nissan GT-R, plus two top-of-the-range Mercedes-Benz and a rather unlucky Toyota prius driver. The estimated value is said to be £2.4 million. As well as losing their beloved cars, getting an insurance claim may be a little harder from now on too.

Extreme Excavation!

Archaeologists have unearthed Peterborough's hidden secrets; Boats, spears and clothing dating back 3,000 years, perfectly preserved in peat and silt. These items expand an already bulging collection of ropes, buckets, wooden spoons and even the remains of a (once) delicious nettle stew found in the unused quarry.

They were dug up by the University of Cambridge from a site along the river Nene. Six boats hollowed from the trunk of an oak tree, some with rather impressive carvings, were the biggest surprise. They are expected to be bronze age, around 800BC. This is likely to extend the ongoing search even further.

Historians assume that a community would have settled by the river. They would most likely fish for perch, pike and eels. The items were discovered just 3 metres below the modern day surface. Hopefully as the search goes on, we'll find out more about life in the past.

Fire! Fire!

Royal Hampshire County Hospital and Hampshire Fire and Rescue faced an almighty uphill battle to control a major fire that broke out at around 4:00 this afternoon. The blaze began in a building which housed a MRI scanner and 2 CT scanners, costing excess of £800,000. Around fifty people were evacuated and moved to safer areas of the hospital.

One hundred firefighters tackled the blaze which is now under control. Eyewitnesses tweeted about flames and smoke around the hospital grounds. The hospital followed it's major incident plan and nobody was injured, although the fire was extremely close to spreading to the rest of the wards. A spokesperson mentioned that "staff were quite brilliant in evacuating the public from the building".

End of the Road

The "bulky and ungainly monstrosities" trampling London for the past 9 years are set for extinction in the coming days. The articulated buses (more commonly known as bendy buses) have been the centerpoint of a heated debate since their introduction to the city. A costly but, in the views of many, essential move.

The 18-metre-long giants have received many criticisms. The bendy buses design meant that people boarded without passing the driver, making it incredibly easy to get a free ride. Their unnecessary bulk blocked many of London's tight roads as well. However, it was this size that carried 140 passengers; a whole lot more than the 85 passengers on the equivelent double decker.

Traditional Routemaster buses will be returning shortly, at a cost of £2.2 million. TfL (Transport for London) additionally says that £7.4 million will be saved by reducing fare dodging. 500 of the Routemasters will be brought in to replace the bendy buses - 50 of which are diesel/electric hybrids. More to the point, an iconic figure is returning home. Welcome back to London!

To Infinity and Beyond!

Rewind the clock back to 1977; NASA launched the Voyager 1. It's mission? To explore the two largest planets in our solar system, Jupiter and Saturn. On November 16th, 1980, it captured photographs of Saturn from a distance of just 5.3 million kilometres away (not a lot, in space terms). Four days later Jupiter was also caught on camera. The mission was complete. But it wasn't stopping there...

Determination resulted in three decades of constant travelling, slowly escaping from the solar system's grasp. And now, at a distance of close to 11 billion miles from the sun, NASA confirmes that Voyager 1 is on the verge of leaving us forever.

This will make Voyager 1 the first man-made object to go above and beyond what once was thought technically impossible. It will reach what astronomers call the 'interstellar medium', the matter which fills the gaps between scattered star systems. It shouldn't take long for us to find out what space is really like.

Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted - Official Teaser Trailer

US troops return home for Christmas

US troops return home for Christmas from Iraq. This year thousands of faimlys are going to have an extra special christmas.
This troop have come back because they have been fighting in Iraq for the past eight years and luckly they are returning home for good!
The american soldiers have been in Iraq for along time. Unfortunally they have been away from there familys since 2003, but luckly President Barack Obama has order the brave soldiers to pull out by the end of this year.

I'm sure every person will be so happy to have the ones they love back!

Olympic Flame

With only 961 days to go until the London 2012 Olympics the organisers have chosen the luck 8,000 inspirational people who have the honor to carry the traditional torch for a mile! They only had a 1 in 14 chance of being picked! Althought the route has already been released the 'Flames' do not know what mile they carry it. Congratulations to Jack Waring (AVHU) and Miss Abdulkarim for being chosen from our school, Dinnington Comprehensive. So why do we have the torch?  In Olympia (Greece), a flame was ignited by the sun and then kept burning until the closing of the Olympic Games.

Facts about the torch!

1. It has 8,000 dimples in, one for each Flame.
2. Every Flame gets to keep their own Torch. It is more like a Flame Relay than a Torch Relay which is  what has usually happened in the past.
3. The Flame will travel from Athens in Greece (The birthplace of the Olympics) to London in the United Kingdom (The host of the 2012 games).
4. The flame is then kept alight until the Games have concluded.
5. The Olympic Torch Relay represents a continuation from the ancient Olympic Games to the modern Olympics today.

So how do you get chosen?

You are nominated by someone who thinks that you are inspirational and then chosen according to your story. Wether you are an athlete or not does not matter. You can still carry the flame : as long as you don't eat the fire!

By Maisie Waring SCHE

New busses with no driver

New "pods" are Replacing busses. The pods have no driver and can go up to a great 40 km/h."Most modern metros are automatic, which increases reliability," says Mr Anderson. They keep on track by a laser which goes on the track and lets the pod know where the track is. The pods can currantly hold 4 people and soon will be able to go 430 km/h thats a whole 390 km/h faster than now. They are all controlled by a central computer. I think this is good because they will be more reliable and will make travelling more efficient.

Matthew Finnie HJPE

Strong Storms Smash Scotland!

IF YOU belived the weather forecast as you strolled out of the house this morning, you would be right in thinking that we were in for a rather blustery day. However, it was a complete understatment compared to what Scotland recived; winds of up to 165mph raced across the country, forcing many to retreat home.

The concequences of mother nature's sudden outburst include loss of electricity, disruption to travel and servere flooding. The storm hit hard, in some places reaching level 5 hurricane speeds! The MET office have warned reigons as far as the Midlands of the upcoming uproar!

Delays stretch across the country, from cars to trains to planes. Hopefully the winds will settle down before the festive season really begins.

David Walliams In Great Expectations

David will be playing Mr Pumblechook in the new Great Expectations, which is awesome news as I love David, he is great in Little Britain and it will be nice to see him act seriously for once.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close Trailer

Vertical tutoring

We would like to know... what you think about vertical tutoring?

In our opinion I think it has turned out to be a lot better than anyone expected. But should the school have took the risk?

Do you like it because of the activities you do in morning's?
Do you like beign with people out of your age group?

For students that dissaprove of the new system we ask ... Why? For students that approve we again ask ... Why? If you wish to comment please do below. So the reason we were so worked up in the first place we think is the fact that they completely abused the school council by completely ignoring our vote! Maybe they knew best this time?

Vertical tutoring was first set up to stop bullying, even though we thought it would just cause more!
Has it stoped what it was set up for?

please comment.

By Phoebe and Maisie :)

E-Mail obsession... is killing Christmas Holidays

According to a survey most UK workers are spending their Christmas holidays checking their work E-Mail which can ruin the holidays for some families. The survey questioned 1,000 people in full-time work. The survey results show that they think most people are concerned about losing their jobs so they try to keep working at home, or wherever they are spending their Christmas. Out of the 1,000 surveyed 31% said that they planned to check their E-Mail intermittently over Christmas and 15% said that they planned to check their E-Mail frequently. I think that Christmas should be a family time together, but for some families that just doesn't happend due to work E-Mails.

Marmite You love it or hate it

There's another reason for people to hate marmite even more, and it’s not to do with the taste
but the motor way and a crash.

It all happened at around 10:15pm when police was called to a crash that involved
a marmite lorry and a motor caravan. And when they got there the marmite truck
had been tipped on it’s side and spilt all it’s load onto the motor way!

The result. The police shut junctions32-33 after the spillage and then proceeded to
try and clean it up. But this caused much more problems for rush hour traffic
as the police closed the road for the whole morning.

Robots will be invading our lives!.

They can do house hold chores, entertaining or educating children to looking after the elderly, Roboticists say we will soon be welcoming robots into our lives.
Rodney Brookes says "I think robotics technology will change who we are, just as eyeglasses and fire changed who we were before,". Robots are beginning to perform everyday tasks like hovering the floor. The latest model from Japan are able to help the elderly get up after they fall. They can also remind old people to take there medication. I think we will be seeing a lot more robots around soon.

The Cabin In the Woods Official Trailer

Neighbourhood Watch, staring Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Jonah Hill, Richard Ayoade, Will Forte and Billy Crudup is about four guys who watch over the neighbourhood and discover aliens. Here are photos of them and their "uniforms".

Wrath Of The Titans Photo

Fox Business blasts The Muppets for brainwashing America's kids with anti-corporate

Christmas Spending

At least £182 is spent on an average Christmas for a low budget
family with 2 children. But statistics show an average family spends around
£600! There’s a big difference!
In a survey committed, poorer families stated that they will spend
under £200. This means that children
will wake up to less Christmas presents this year! However parents it was the
media and teenagers expectations of electronic goods like iPods and mobile
phones' fault as they put pressure to spend a lot.
Will the standards continue to deteriorate?

scientist find earth-like planet

Nasa scientists have found an Earth-like planet, out side our solar system . Infact they have confirmed this. It's circling a star similar to our Sun about 600 light years away. This planet is called Kepler 22-b. The planet is around about double the size of earth, including a temperature of around 22C, this temperature is just right for liquid water - something that's important to
support life.
Experts are still deciding weather this strange planet is made out of rock, liquid or gas.

Telescope are on missions to find planets like ours, the Kepler 22-b was discorved by Nasa's Kepler space telescope.

How did they come up with the name?
So Kepler 22-b got them thinking - it's not the catchiest or most exciting name
for a planet that could actually support alien life, is it?
(comment if you have a new name)

You Tube's Redisign

YouTube have now put channels at their service making people supposedly stay longer on the site. Channels are curated lists of videos chosen by a perticular YouTube member. They also have links to social sites such as Facebook and Google+. On the other hand people are complaining about things like: "Why can't I remove videos I have already watched!" and about 17 hours after a clip had been posted about "Get more into You Tube" 6,703 members "disliked" it where as only 2,280 "liked" it. Furthermore people have been commenting "R.I.P YouTube" and "Change it back" etc. Overall it looks like people would rather it changed back than leave it. I for one am enjoying the change.

Andrew Barringer SCAN & Matthew Finnie HJPE

The New 2011 King!

So, after an amazing and exhausting 3 weeks in the jungle, Dougie Poynter has been crowned King of the Jungle 2011 on Im A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here!

In the jungle Dougie met and got along with Mark Wright, they both were in the semi final togther competing and fighting for the title, King of the Jungle.

Dougie takes a look back at his camp highs and lows as he chats to Ant and Dec in the grand final...

^ Press the link to see the video of Dougie and his highlights.


Dougie and Mark's final word as they prepare to leave the jungle for good...

^ Press the link to see Dougie's and Mark's final word.

Or simply go to the "Im A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here" website where you can find out about what happened in the jungle this year, and all about this years celebrities!

By Emily Booker SLWA

School Dinner's Unhealthy again?

The people who supply the food for school meals say that menus could be changing for the worse again. They say cheap and unhealthy foods are creeping back onto menus despite a big campaign a few years ago by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver who is knows all across Europe. That campaign got a law passed that said schools had to provide more healthy lunches for kids as obesity in the UK has risen in the past Five Years. But new schools that are opening across England, called academies (Like Wales Academy), don't have to obey that law and are ordering cheaper, unhealthy food.

What do you say about this?

John Carter stills

Chronicle Trailer

Ice Age 4

Lost Space Probe - Doomed to Failure?

Little hope surrounds the Phobos-Grunt probe, after its mission to Mars was severely disrupted after it failed to soar to the Red Planet. The probe was designed to bring samples of rock and dust from Mars, further enhancing our knowledge of the universe. However, dark days lurked ahead when the craft failed to fire its critical engine. Currently, Phobos-Grunt is trapped in a spiralling orbit around the Earth’s atmosphere!

The mission began successfully, before taking a catastrophic turn for the worse. Two firings from the hydrazine-fuelled rockets were planned; the first would raise the probe to 4,000km and the second would steer the probe on the path to Mars. Neither of these were accomplished.

If this is a software error, commands could possibly be sent up to Phobos-Grunt. Although Mars is now out of sight, the craft could visit and asteroid of some description. More to the point, it won’t collide with anything. Which brings the topic swiftly to the event of a hardware failure. If that were to occur, then the whole mission would fall like a lead balloon... Literally.