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| Phobos-Grunt imaged from the ground on 29 Nov, at an altitude of 230km and at a range of 274km (ralfvandeburgh.startje.be) |
It is searching added austere for Russia's Mars mission Phobos-Grunt, which has been ashore ambit the Earth aback its barrage in aboriginal November.
Apart from some abrupt radio acquaintance with the aberrant delving just over a anniversary ago, there has been absolute blackout from the spacecraft.
The European Space Bureau appear on Friday that it was now abeyance any added attempts to get a signal.
Russian engineers admitting are accepted to accumulate aggravating to the last.
"We will break accessible for our Russian colleagues in case there is any assurance or glimpse of achievement from their side," said Dr Manfred Warhaut from Esa's European Space Operations Centre (Esoc) in Darmstadt, Germany.
It was Esa's 15m antenna in Perth, Australia, that aboriginal managed to get a acknowledgment from Phobos-Grunt on 22 and 23 November (GMT). That success was bound followed by Russian arena controllers application a 0.5m bowl in Baikonur, Kazakhstan.
But aback then, the delving has not reacted to any commands.
Phobos-Grunt is currently affective in an apogee with an ambit that varies amid 200km (perigee) and 340km (apogee).
This apogee is boring decaying. If engineers cannot re-establish acquaintance and control, the 13-tonne aircraft will eventually abatement aback to Earth.
The game-plan of backward has been to try to stabilise the apogee by accepting commands into the delving that would actuate its thrusters and accession it college in the sky. Accepting Phobos-Grunt into a safe "parking orbit" would buy engineers added time to accede their options.
The befalling to go to Mars, however, has been lost. The alteration alignment of the planets now makes the ambit to Mars too big to cross.
Phobos-Grunt was congenital to acreage on the beyond of Mars' two moons, Phobos, and beat up bedrock to accompany aback to Earth.
Such a adventure should crop alluring new insights into the agent of the 27km-wide article and the planet it circles.
The mission is aswell notable because China's aboriginal Mars satellite, Yinghuo-1, has been launched piggy-back on the capital Russian spacecraft.
While Esa was consistently traveling to accommodate arena abutment to the Phobos-Grunt mission, the bureau said it now acquainted it had done aggregate it could do to help.
"We accept beat all the abstruse options at this point," said Wolfgang Hell, Esa's Phobos-Grunt account manager.
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