idb
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- Dec 26, 2010
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The latest attempt by the Russians to launch a probe to the Martian moon, Phobos, will have failed to even get out of earth's orbit if they can't sort out the issue.
Phobos Grunt Probe | Russian Scientists Rush To... | Stuff.co.nz
They admit that they have a lack of experience in their space industry.
This sort of thing has surely got to be a concern for the US space program with their reliance on the Russians for transport.
Phobos Grunt Probe | Russian Scientists Rush To... | Stuff.co.nz
They admit that they have a lack of experience in their space industry.
Failure would be a major blow to the pride of Russia's space agency, which was crimped by budget constraints and a brain drain following the 1991 Soviet collapse and suffered a humiliating series of setbacks this year.
"They say there is hope to reset it, apparently it's a problem with the programming but there is very little time," the lead mission scientist Alexander Zakharov of the Space Research Institute told Reuters.
"I feel grief. It's very sad that this is how it all worked out but this is a consequence of our lack of people after such a big interval... Many young people worked on this. There is a lack of experience, we are working almost from scratch."
This sort of thing has surely got to be a concern for the US space program with their reliance on the Russians for transport.