My little advice...Discard all reports on Fobos-Grunt unless they directly quote a named official. Just wait.
Apparently (according to Vesti) there were 2 communication sessions already - late evening 9th and on the 10th of Nov at night. 2 consecutive orbits I presume?http://www.ria.ru/science/20111110/485317739.html
Just a short report. [right after the launch] we've got telemetry from the 2nd stage of Zenit launcher, it shows normal separation. After the first loop the one and only [SC] telemetry session has been received, it showed deployment of the solar arrays, constant solar orientation and normal work of all systems. After the second loop we found the SC on the initial orbit, it was silent. No telemetry since that. Previous night at Baikonur there were failed attempts to restart the onboard computer. This attempts will be repeated this night.
The newest theory conveyed by a poster at NK is that the spacecraft rebooted on the second orbit and cannot communicate with the ground stations because the spacecraft was reset to the mode before launch (a bit similar to the sudden loss of contact with Spirit on Mars back in 2004). Right now P-G is within the view of ESA's ground station at Kourou, so fingers crossed...
By now someone on the NK forum already claimed that they will shoot the darned thing down next Monday if the mission ultimately cannot be saved....
does it have a Norad listing yet?
Quote from: ntrgc89 on 11/09/2011 03:52 am.... according to the Space Review (http://thespacereview.com/article/1966/1) Phobos-Grunt "is the heaviest solar system explorer ever (more than twice the second-heaviest, Cassini).", not just the heaviest built in the former USSR.I don't accept that claim, since the probe's mass is presented in LEO parking orbit, prior to insertion on the trans-Mars route. More than half of that mass disappears by the time it's on interplanetary cruise.
.... according to the Space Review (http://thespacereview.com/article/1966/1) Phobos-Grunt "is the heaviest solar system explorer ever (more than twice the second-heaviest, Cassini).", not just the heaviest built in the former USSR.
... Something happened when the craft started the first burn.
...Sorry to rehash this
Something happened when the craft started the first burn.