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November 13th, 2011 | #1 |
Enkidu
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Track the Russian spacecraft
This Russian spacecraft is likely to hit Earth, nobody knows, but sometime soon. It's called Phobos-Grunt. Yes, that's Grunt.
You can track it here: http://www.n2yo.com/?s=37872 Takes a while to load. You'll be looking at a simple map of the US for a while. Then the map will change to a tracking map of the spacecraft. This spacecraft is really toxic. Mike
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Hunter S. Thompson, "Big dark, coming soon" |
November 13th, 2011 | #2 |
Enkidu
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If you use the controls to move up two clicks, you can see the future and past orbit about an orbit in both directions.
Mike
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Hunter S. Thompson, "Big dark, coming soon" |
November 13th, 2011 | #3 | |
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Quote:
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November 13th, 2011 | #4 |
Celebrating My Diversity
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Those beanies shall protect them.
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November 13th, 2011 | #5 |
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'grunt' transcribed from Russian 'грунт' (soil) http://translate.google.com/#ru|en|%...83%D0%BD%D1%82 |
November 14th, 2011 | #6 |
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According to scientists the grunt is the largest and most sophisticated interplanetary probe ever launched. It's mission is to established orbit around Mars, take pictures for a few months, separate it self from a Chinese Mars orbiter that it is carrying and then land on Phobos, dig up soil and rock samples then blast off back to Earth. A series of technical and engineering marvels..had it worked. Now it's a flying piece of toxic junk awaiting an early earthly return just as soon as gravity starts kicking in, its main rocket engines having failed to ignite and the Russians unable to communicate with it. NASA says it will come down in mid to late December who knows where.
But experts like James Oberg, a NASA veteran who now works as a space consultant, think the fuel could freeze, surviving the fiery re-entry and causing an environmental disaster on impact. He said the probe would become 'the most toxic falling satellite ever', adding: 'What was billed as the heaviest interplanetary probe ever may become one of the heaviest space derelicts to ever fall back to Earth out of control, an unenviable record.' http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencete...re-begins.html Last edited by Steve B; November 14th, 2011 at 02:42 PM. |
November 23rd, 2011 | #7 | |
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Europeans make contact with Russian dud
Quote:
Meanwhile NASA has a Mars probe set for launch this month called the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL). Its mission should it decide to accept it is to assess whether Mars is, or ever was, capable of supporting microbial life. It also contains an minivan sized 1 ton rover(called Curiosity) that is the largest thus far of all of the exploratory vehicles that have landed on the red planet. Curiosity, assuming everything goes according to plan, will touch down at Mars Gale crater. The rover will be lowered to the ground using a sky crane that works well in computer simulations but in reality has never been tried before on any interplanetary space missions. Total cost: 2.5 billion. |
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November 23rd, 2011 | #8 |
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Animation vid of what the Mars Science Laboratory is supposed to do.
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January 15th, 2012 | #9 |
Enkidu
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Looks like it's coming down today.
"Russian space probe to crash to Earth within hours" http://enews.earthlink.net/article/t...3-11b74fb670a8 Mike Edit: The link to track the spacecraft (first post above) is unavailable. Probably too much traffic.
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Hunter S. Thompson, "Big dark, coming soon" Last edited by Mike in Denver; January 15th, 2012 at 02:05 PM. |
January 15th, 2012 | #10 |
Enkidu
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I think it's down. I finally managed to get into the tracking site. There are no orbits shown, just a symbol of the spacecraft, stationary in the South Pacific.
Mike
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Hunter S. Thompson, "Big dark, coming soon" |
January 15th, 2012 | #11 |
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Jerusalem Post ticker is reporting it down.....
And the US/Israel Missile Test Drill that had a big chances of going live against Iran has been cancelled. http://www.jpost.com/Defense/Article.aspx?id=253691 |
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