Right now, Phobos-Grunt, perhaps the most ambitious planetary science probe in history, faces an all but certain fiery doom as it is set to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere early next month after repeated attempts top contact the wayward planetary probe, and set it on a new course, have failed. However, even though the best rocket scientists can't talk to Phobos-Grunt, amateur astronomers are busy photographing it.
Ralf Vandebergh, a veteran satellite watcher from the Netherlands, has recently captured Phobos-Grunt on camera through his telescopes. The pictures of the doomed satellite have now found their way to Space.com, one of the web's premier space news sites. About a month ago, Vandebergh shot hist first pictures of Phobod-Grunt, but, according to him, the new ones are better thanks to the satellite's positionihg. Result: individual components of the wayward Mars probe are visible.
Describing his experiences, Vandebergh described the probe turned satellite as looking “stable” and the whole opportunity to photograph such a spectacle as “amazing,” beforea dding that he would rather the mission be on its way to Mars, where it was intended to go in the first place.
For anyone wanting to be like Vandebergh and photograph Phobos-Grunt, hurry, the satellite is expected to fall in early to mid January. Don't know where to look? Go to Spaceweather's Simple Satellite Tracker, enter your U.S. or Canadian zip code, and see if Phobos-Grunt will be passing through your sky anytime soon. International readers, a trip to Heavens Above will be enlightening for you.
Back to the news, the probe may not be a total lossas some analysts are saying that it may wind up having a purpose: improving satellite fall predictions.
Last fall, Earth was gripped by the news that two large satellites were going to make an uncontrolled fall from orbit: NASA's UARSand Germany's ROSAT. Fortunately, despite many pieces of the satellites surviving to impact Earth's surface no one was hurt and no damage was done. However, if the falls had taken place just a few hours either way of when they did, populated areas could have been in the fall zone.
Now, looking to make lemonade out of a monster lemon, the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee, of which Russia's Rocosmos is a member, is looking to use the doomed Mars probe as a test object to better predict satellite falls.
However, there are a lot of unknowns, too.
First of all, despite the Cold War being over for 20 years, Russia is not all that forthcoming with specific details of Phobos-Grunt's construction. If Rocosmos would release such information, better predictions could be made in regards to determining how much of the satellite could survive the complete fall back to Earth. Similarly, the piggybacked Chinese probe, Yinghou 1 is a virtual mystery when it comes to its build specifications.
In the end, though, as was the case with UARS and ROSAT, experts are advising that there is no real reason for worry. Yes, the possibility of getting hit with a piece of falling space junk is present, the odds of it actually happening are very, very small as in over 50 years of space exploration (and falling junk), this has never before happened
Like this?
Hit the 'subscribe' button for automatic email updates when I write something new!
Want to read more of my stuff? Check out my other Examiner columns!
Photography Examiner
Cleveland Astronomy Examiner
Cleveland Photography Examiner
Space News
NASA has lost 500+ Moon rocks
New evidence for martian water
Geminid Meteor Shower wrap-up
NASA faces unexpected budget cuts
Phobos-Grunt may not be a total waste
NASA announces Earth-sized planets
'Doomsday' is a year away
Spaceballs: they're real!
Want even more? Check out my personal website:
Bodzash Photography and Astronomy
Comments