Russia's latest attempt to reach Mars trapped in Earth's orbit
November 9, 2011
Russia recently launched a space probe, Phobos-Grunt with the intention of sending it to Mars, but it got caught in Earth's orbit upon leaving the planet's atmosphere. The plan was for the space craft to orbit Mars for a few months before landing on the planet's satellite, Phobos. However, after a successful launch, the craft's engines failed trapping the Phobos-Grunt in Earth's orbit, according to Space.com.
The news source reports that the Russian space agency has only three days left to solve the problem and resume the mission before the spacecraft's batteries die. People can makes calls to Russia with international calling cards to find out the latest news on the space mission.
Wired reports that this is not the first time that Russia has been met with failure when trying to reach Mars. Phobos One, launched in 1988, got lost on its way to the Red Planet due to a faulty command sequence shutting it down. Phobos Two made it to Mars and was even able to send a series of photographs back to Earth, but contact with the spacecraft was lost before it could land on the moon.