Re:Russians Desperately Try to Save Mars Moon Probe
by noonespecial on Wednesday November 09, 2011 @04:23PM
(#3217463)
Even if it never heads off to Mars, if they can just get it into a stable orbit, having all of that fuel up there could come in handy later.
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Re:Russians Desperately Try to Save Mars Moon Probe
by Udo on Wednesday November 09, 2011 @05:25PM
(#3217777)
Without power to fire the maneuvering thrusters its orbit will probably degrade fairly rapidly. Also, it's probably more expensive to get the fuel out during a complicated docking operation than it is to just get up new fuel for new missions as needed.
This sucks. It would have been a very cool mission.
Re:Russians Desperately Try to Save Mars Moon Probe
by ww520 on Wednesday November 09, 2011 @07:54PM
(#3218314)
The engines failed to fire. All those fuels are not being used. The probe is circling the Earth on inertia. After a while without power the orbit will deteriorate.
Hope they can get the engine to fire before it's too late.