An international effort is under way to save Russia's Phobos-Grunt mission to Mars, but time is quickly running out on propelling the probe toward the Red Planet. The interplanetary undertaking is designed to visit Phobos, one of the moons of Mars, and return samples to Earth by 2014. But Phobos-Grunt's deadline only chance for departure from Earth orbit is projected to be Thursday, because of the alignment of Earth and Mars as well as the spacecraft's fuel status to attain the outward-bound oomph required. Using powerful radio dishes to monitor the vehicle, officials from the European Space Agency, NASA and Russia have been engaged in a global endeavor to rescue the spacecraft, which has...
↧