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.
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