The Phobos-Grunt probe is one of the most ambitious Russian projects in over a decade.
FORBES: Russian Mars Probe Will Probably Fall To Earth Next Month
The agency reports that its tracking station in Perth, Australia, picked up a signal from the Phobos-Grunt probe.
The Phobos-Grunt spacecraft was put in orbit on Wednesday, but failed to fire the engine that was designed to take it on to the Red Planet.
The launch of the Phobos-Grunt on November 9, 2011.
FORBES: Russian Mars Probe Will Probably Fall To Earth Next Month
Exxon has been consistently investing in upstream facilities over 2012, and key examples include the Kearl Initial Development Project for natural gas and offshore oil prospects such as the Phobos in the Gulf of Mexico.
FORBES: After Exxon's Ho-Hum Year Can Higher Oil Demand Could Lift Results?
Or, it could mean that they gain control of the spacecraft, but that the Fregat engine still will not ignite, yet the much less powerful propulsion units designed to land the craft on Phobos and propel the return capsule back to Earth are working fine.
Launch failures claimed nearly half of Russia's probes, including the ambitious Phobos-Grunt sample return mission last year.
Russian Mars probe Phobos-Grunt fell into the ocean earlier this month, far short of its goal of reaching the Martian moon Phobos.
FORBES: Russian Gov't Blames Mars Probe Failure On Programming Glitch
Instead of putting the probe on a course for Phobos, the probe is now trapped in low Earth orbit.
FORBES: Russian Mars Probe Will Probably Fall To Earth Next Month
Fellow tracker Ted Molczan from Toronto, Canada, has been trying to determine the precise orbit of Phobos-Grunt around the Earth, and thought on Friday he had seen the craft rise slightly.
Despite valiant efforts by Roscosmos and other space agencies, the Russian probe Phobos-Grunt will be falling back to Earth over the weekend, most likely on Sunday night, according to projections by the Center for Orbital and Reentry Debris Studies at the Aerospace Corporation.
FORBES: Failed Russian Probe Phobos-Grunt Will Fall To Earth This Weekend
The rocket failures come on top of the loss of Phobos-Grunt, Russia's most ambitious planetary mission in decades.
The most recent Russian probe, which was launched to the Mars moon Phobos last November, never made it out of Earth orbit.
So far, the repeated passes of Phobos-Grunt over ground stations have failed to yield any telemetry.
In his letter, Zelenyi urges his fellow scientists not to give up hope and to try again on another mission when the next window to Phobos opens in 26 months.
FORBES: Russian Scientist Apologizes For Failed Mars Mission
The propellants, unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine (UDMH) and dinitrogen tetroxide (DTO), are highly toxic but they will almost certainly be consumed in the fireball that engulfs Phobos-Grunt when it makes its death dive to Earth.
Both the ESA and Roscosmos were able to communicate with Phobos-Grunt while it was in orbit and send commands to the probe.
FORBES: Russian Gov't Blames Mars Probe Failure On Programming Glitch
All the information gathered in Tuesday night's communication, including telemetry from Phobos-Grunt, has been passed straight to the Russians.
Phobos-Grunt, the Russian satellite, fell from the skies as we know.
FORBES: Phobos-Grunt Falls From the Sky. Tim Worstall Not Blamed
But if the fault lies in a hardware malfunction, Phobos-Grunt may still be beyond hope.
On Friday, Phobos-Grunt was moving around the Earth at an altitude that varied between 177km (perigee) and 224km (apogee).
The probe was built to land on the larger of Mars' two moons, Phobos, and scoop up rock to bring back to Earth.
But for some reason, those engine burns never happened, and Phobos-Grunt has continued to circle the Earth.
Without the Fregat upper stage, Grunt cannot travel to Phobos, yet if this powerful and massive stage were jettisoned, some less powerful, but functional, engines would be available for burns.
Phobos, though larger than Deimos, crosses the Martian night sky in four hours, he said.
According to Roscosmos head Vladimir Popovkin, the space agency has about two weeks to communicate with the probe and give it the commands to fire its boosters and set course for Phobos.
FORBES: Russian Mars Probe Will Probably Fall To Earth Next Month
The community of citizen satellite trackers has, though, reported Phobos-Grunt to be in a stable orientation.
If control of Phobos-Grunt cannot be re-established, the focus of interest will very rapidly shift to the spacecraft's certain fall to Earth.
Phobos-Grunt launched successfully on its Zenit rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome and was dropped off into an elliptical orbit with an apogee (farthest point from Earth) of 345km.
The agency had to modify its 15m dish in Perth to get through to Phobos-Grunt.
应用推荐