Russia’s “Fobos-Grunt” [“Phobos-Dirt”] Debacle

Feb 16, 2012: IEEE Spectrum: Did 'Cosmic Rays' REALLY Kill the Probe? [official report's claim]

Feb 21, 2012: Jim's Technical Assessment of Official Roscosmos Accident Report Summary

Ted Molczan's Analysis of the Mysterious 'Perigee Creep' Orbital Motion {Feb 1}

Jim on "The need for real 'rocket science' to solve Russian spaceflight setbacks" [Jan 30]

Jim explains why he thinks some pieces did fall on Chile [Jan 29]

Was Phobos downed by the Sun or a technical flaw? // Ilya Kharlamov, Jan 26

Jan 25 -- So where DID it crash

Roskosmos at a crossroads // Jan 25, Ilya Kramnik [military analyst for the Voice of Russia]

January 17: Jim discusses controversy and mystery of prbe's crash

Jan 17 -- Russian Accusations of US Fault Grow Louder

January 16: Jim explains disaster for Discovery-Canada TV

Jan 16 -- Mystery of Landing Locations

Jan 15 -- Where Will It Come In

Jan 14 -- Why Impact Point Cannot Be Exactly Predicted

Jan 12 -- Probe Architecture Was Invitation To Disaster

Jan 12 -- Death Watch begins

Jan 10 -- Russia suspects US zapped probe

TASS 'Infographic' of various theories

Spaceflight101 [Patrick Blau} explains wht he agrees

Russian TV summarizes looney-tune theories

The Phobos crash was preprogrammed, Konstantin Bogdanov

What else can crash in Russia after Phobos Ground? Anton Yevseev, Pravda

Probe’s home page [in Russian]

Pre-launch trajectory of rocket firings

Live blogging of launch, then disaster

Live blogging of accident investigation

“Spaceflight-101” Blog of Mission Progress

Dec 02 - Euros Quit Futile Comm Attempts

Dec 01 - Rant on Russian Space Incompetence

Nov 30 - No Comm Progress Euros to Quit Trying

Nov 24 - Moronic Russian Accusation of US Sabotage

Nov 23 - Radio Contact

Nov 23 - Radio Contact Confirmed

Nov 21 - Surviving Reentry

Nov14 - Is Cross-coupling Raising the Orbit

Nov 14 - Criticizing Moscow Secrecy

Nov 14 - Russians giving up hope

Nov 12 - Rebuttel to Popovkin

Nov 10 - Overnight news not encouraging

Nov 09 - Stuck but maybe rescuable

Nov 08 - Launch

Russia Asks South American Astronomers: Watch Our Rocket, Please!

Why The Probe Was Delayed (from September 2009)

02/05/2009 - Oberg’s “Lunar and Planetary Institute” presentation
- Powerpoint presentation

Selected charts from that presentation:

06/2009 - Discover Magazine: “Russia's Dark Horse Plan to Get to Mars”

02/2009 - Robot Magazine: Russia’s Robot Grabber on a Martian Moon

02/2007 - ASTRONOMY Magazine: “Russia Prepares A Return to Mars”

Mission simulation animations on youtube videos:
Ten minute preview (Jim’s guide to events here)

Five-minute alternate version with Bolero soundtrack
Phobos-Grunt Sample Return Mission
Jim’s review: “Very nice spacecraft graphics, but flight trajectory is badly illustrated. Shows old (rejected) proposal for ion thrusting in transit to Mars. Graphic shows Mars leading as probe reaches Mars orbit (that’s wrong). Omits final plane change maneuver prior to return to Earth. Also – wrong booster for Earth launch.”

Recent more correct and shorter report
and this link
Comment: “28 Feb 2009 ‘Vesti’ news, shows spacecraft fabrication, Phobos model, interviews, animation, and CORRECT launch vehicle (near end)”

The dark side of space conspiracy disaster theories [January 2008]

Air&Space – Dec 2004: “Things That Fall to Earth” [surviving reentry]

Oberg [MSNBC]: ‘Death Planet’ gets a bum rap [Dec 2003]Problems with Mars probes? The fault is not in the stars, but in ourselves

The ‘Great Galactic Ghoul’ fairy tale

Eerie predecessor: Mars-96 falls back to Earth [with plutonium]

Scary predecessor: Falling Soviet nuclear reactors, official coverups

HOW MARS MISSIONS FAIL – AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT