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An ill-fated Phobos-Grunt spacecraft would repeat the fate of its predecessor - Mars-96 - decade and a half earlier. However that earlier failed mission could still provide engineering heritage for the future of the Russian planetary exploration program. Copyright © 2008 Anatoly Zak

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TOP STORY

New details into Phobos-Grunt failure investigation continue to emerge

Published: 2012 Jan. 30; updated: Feb. 1

Another industry source leaked more critical details from the investigation into the Phobos-Grunt failure Monday. The latest information was based on the conclusions of the sub-commission No. 2, which looked into the behavior of the probe's flight control system, BKU, during the ill-fated mission.

The BKU system had been essentially a brain of the spacecraft and its shortcomings had been well documented long before the ill-fated launch. As a result, the work of sub-commission No. 2 was the most critical part of the investigation, formulating the most probably cause of the failure.

In its summary report, the group concluded that the loss of the mission failure was the result of the design error and the lack in the ground testing of BKU.

According to the report, after the spacecraft reached the orbit, all systems worked well. Ground controllers did not receive a signal confirming the opening of solar panels, however, the investigation showed that this confirmation had been been included into the telemetry stream relayed to the ground before the launch. Still, the data about electric current in the power supply system did confirm indirectly that panels had deployed.

Details inside

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