LIVE: Zenit-2SB launch with Phobos-Grunt - November 8, 2011

[Nicolas PILLET]

my next big concern is the operation of the Fregat stage

There is no Fregat stage. There is a MDU, which is derived from Fregat stage. 

[BrunoQuiocca]

How long is it taking to do a full lap around the earth?
According to this: http://digilander.libero.it/SATrack/Phobos.html?q=phobos&jd=2455874.35069566&Post=800#MAP the spacecraft just went over Argentina, and on the next 4 passes will be almost on the same spot as it was last night when i saw it. Actually a bit over west. As sunset is around 21:30 GMT here, it will be perfect for me to see it again.
Of course, if the russians don't fire up the rocket, cause it will start to fly over them in the same laps.

[sdsds]

How long is it taking to do a full lap around the earth?
According to this: http://digilander.libero.it/SATrack/Phobos.html?q=phobos&jd=2455874.35069566&Post=800#MAP the shuttle just went over Argentina, and on the next 4 passes will be almost on the same spot as it was last night when i saw it. Actually a bit over west. As sunset is around 21:30 GMT here, it will be perfect for me to see it again.
Of course, if the russians don't fire up the rocket, cause it will start to fly over them in the same laps.

If the shape of the orbit is 207 x 347 km then the period of the orbit would be almost exactly 90 minutes, I think.

[Vladi]

Orbital period is 1h 29m 51s.

Ulan Ude might have got 8 minutes to contact the spacecraft, however it appears that we have to wait until a pass over Baikonur for better data.

[Nick]

RIA Novosti is quoting Vladimir Popovkin as saying that there are two weeks to send the necessary commands to Phobos-Grunt and that it will remain in orbit for four weeks::

http://en.rian.ru/science/20111109/168547329.html

[BrunoQuiocca]

If the shape of the orbit is 207 x 347 km then the period of the orbit would be almost exactly 90 minutes, I think.

Thanks.
So it should be over me around 22:45 GMT. Almost the same time as it was yesterday.
We will be looking up to the sky here.

[Nickolai]

This was posted a couple pages ago, but to elaborate on the statement from Roscosmos: http://roscosmos.ru/main.php?id=2&nid=18227

The Google translate link is surprisingly good: http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=ru&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Froscosmos.ru%2Fmain.php%3Fid%3D2%26nid%3D18227

But to clarify a bit on the third paragraph: During the first planned engine burn an off-nominal situation occured - the engines were not fired. At the time of this planned burn the spacecraft was not in view of ground stations.
At the present time all parameters related to the motion/orbit of the spacecraft have been determined.

Key point: Adjusted analysis of the orbital parameters and energy supply on board showed that these commands must be issued within 2 weeks.

NOT 3 days, as initially reported. Remember, this is an official source.

We'll hopefully know more sometime around 3pm EST (23MSK) or at least shortly thereafter.

And can we please stop calling it a shuttle?

[cro-magnon gramps]

this is part of a concise chronology of the crisis of the space craft

http://www.russianspaceweb.com/phobos_grunt_launch.html

At 16:35 Moscow Time (7:35 EST), a poster on Astronomy.ru web forum reported that new attempts to escape Earth orbit would be conducted between 03:00 and 05:00 Moscow Time on Thursday, November 10 (6 p.m. - 8 p.m. EST on Wednesday). According to Interfax news agency, Phobos-Grunt was expected to enter the range of Russian ground control stations at around 21:30 Moscow Time (12:30 p.m. EST), however only a ground station in Baikonur was equipped to downlink all necessary telemetry data and transmit new commands for the upcoming maneuver.

[lucspace]

The previous two posts indicate the two-week period to solve the problems is virtual; there are only three days... the click is ticking!

[Jason1701]

This makes me wonder what this forum would have been like during Apollo 13.

[ugordan]

The previous two posts indicate the two-week period to solve the problems is virtual; there are only three days... the click is ticking!

How do they indicate that?

[Svetoslav]

And can we please stop calling it a shuttle?

People in USA/English speaking countries call it an unmanned probe or an unmanned spacecraft...

The true name in Russian - Автоматическая межпланетная станция can be translated into English as "Automatic Interplanetary Station"

[Chris Bergin]

This makes me wonder what this forum would have been like during Apollo 13.

"OMG! Just heard 'Houston, we have a problem' over the loop! That doesn't sound good?!"

"Calm down, it could be anything."

"Uh oh, someone's just tweeted they are losing O2!"

And so on

[JWag]

The RussianSpaceWeb site says this:

in just two days [Phobos-Grunt] would descent too low for the available propellant to raise its parking orbit and conduct another attempt to enter escape trajectory toward Mars, reports said.

It's not clear to me what "reports" the author is referring to.

[Jason1701]

This makes me wonder what this forum would have been like during Apollo 13.

"OMG! Just heard 'Houston, we have a problem' over the loop! That doesn't sound good?!"

"Calm down, it could be anything."

"Uh oh, someone's just tweeted they are losing O2!"

And so on

.. for three and a half straight days. And let's hope you wouldn't change the thread's title to "LOC: Apollo 13" during the period before splashdown!

[cro-magnon gramps]

This makes me wonder what this forum would have been like during Apollo 13.

we slept in shifts, in the living room with the TV on; I can only say, it would have been 10 times the pages on this thread by now at least; would have been a zoo with the hundreds of people posting; I think the closest equivalent would have been Katrina, Christmas Tsunami or last springs Japan Earth Quake;

edit - it is quite probable that this website would have crashed in the first day along with many others as people tried to get news; I'm not sure the TV networks would have coped any better; interesting idea though, perhaps someone has a book in them on this ;-)

[Svetoslav]

http://www.firstnews.ru/news/lenta/evropa-predlagaet-rf-pomoshch-v-podderzhanii-svyazi-s-fobos-gruntom/

Europe offers help to Russia. ESA says the deep space station of the agency can be activated so specialists would communicate with Phobos-Grunt all the time...

I wonder ... what is that station
 

[nrh]

Maybe these? http://www.esa.int/esaMI/Operations/SEMGSDSMTWE_0.html

[Jason1701]

I wonder ... what is that station
 

"Station" as in "ground tracking station," not "orbital station."

[Nickolai]

I'm suddenly a bit confused by the Roscosmos statement I posted. They claim the SC was out of range of ground stations during the planned burn, but RussianHalo posted information that DSN was contracted to provide telemetry for the burns. Does anyone know about the contract with DSN? And it seems we haven't confirmed the rumour that JPL supplied an auxiliary guidance computer either.