15 January 2012

Heads! Russia's Phobos-Grunt is coming down very soon now. Here's everything you need to know - except where...


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16491457 
It is now less than 24 hours until Russia's doomed Mars probe Phobos Grunt will come plunging back into a fiery death somewhere in the world.

It will all come down, but around 200 kilograms of it are likely to reach the surface. And what of the highly toxic fuel? To be seen I guess.

In Australia, Adelaide, Melbourne and Brisbane are in the potential firing line. But so are most of the world's oceans, with something like two-thirds of the trajectory over ocean. And with the heavy cloud cover we have at the moment, there's not much chance really of us having a spectacular view of it.

New Scientist have a quite good summary if you are in need of a backgrounder.

You can keep right up to date by following http://twitter.com/PhG_Reentry

1 comment:

  1. It is high time that Russia collaborates with India on such space missions. Will save cost and time for both. Chances of such types of failures will hopefully come down.

    ReplyDelete

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