Russia unsure of space probe's crash area
Source: Agencies |
January 17, 2012, Tuesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
Russian officials said they had no firm information where a failed Mars moon probe plummeted to Earth, the day after it went down.
The unmanned Phobos-Ground probe fell on Sunday after being stuck in Earth's orbit for two months. The US$170 million craft was one of the heaviest and most toxic pieces of space junk ever to crash to Earth, but space officials and experts said the risks posed by its crash were minimal because the toxic rocket fuel on board and most of the craft's structure would burn up in the atmosphere high above the ground.
News agencies had cited Defense Ministry spokesman Alexei Zolotukhin as saying that fragments of the craft fell in the Pacific Ocean off Chile's coast. But Zolotukhin said that estimate was based on calculations, and no witness reports had been received.
The deputy head of Russia's space agency, Anatoly Shilov, said that agency data assumed the craft broke up somewhere over Brazil.
A statement from the space agency, Roscosmos, yesterday cited the reported Defense Ministry assessment, but gave no further information, noting "the lack of means of visual and other monitoring" in the region.
The Phobos-Ground probe was designed to travel to one of Mars' twin moons, Phobos, land on it, collect soil samples and fly them back to Earth in 2014.
The unmanned Phobos-Ground probe fell on Sunday after being stuck in Earth's orbit for two months. The US$170 million craft was one of the heaviest and most toxic pieces of space junk ever to crash to Earth, but space officials and experts said the risks posed by its crash were minimal because the toxic rocket fuel on board and most of the craft's structure would burn up in the atmosphere high above the ground.
News agencies had cited Defense Ministry spokesman Alexei Zolotukhin as saying that fragments of the craft fell in the Pacific Ocean off Chile's coast. But Zolotukhin said that estimate was based on calculations, and no witness reports had been received.
The deputy head of Russia's space agency, Anatoly Shilov, said that agency data assumed the craft broke up somewhere over Brazil.
A statement from the space agency, Roscosmos, yesterday cited the reported Defense Ministry assessment, but gave no further information, noting "the lack of means of visual and other monitoring" in the region.
The Phobos-Ground probe was designed to travel to one of Mars' twin moons, Phobos, land on it, collect soil samples and fly them back to Earth in 2014.
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