back to article Russian boffins: US radar didn't fry Phobos-Grunt

Russian boffins have pooh-poohed the theory that duff Martian moon probe Phobos-Grunt failed to leave Earth's orbit because it had been knackered by US radar. Yesterday, news website RIA Novosti reported that a Russian government commission scrutinising the fiasco was mulling whether or not US radars interfered with the craft …

COMMENTS

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  1. Thomas 18
    Thumb Down

    In russia there are consequences for failure

    Unlike on wall street.

    1. perlcat
      Flame

      There are *too* consequences for failure on Wall St.

      They get multi-million dollar bonuses.

  2. Sceptic Tank Silver badge
    Big Brother

    "...punish those guilty"

    Someone is going to the Gulag.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "...the processor of the main flight control computer could become overloaded, leading it to crash and reboot."

    <joke>Was it running Win95?</joke>

    On a typical telecoms satellite, you are permitted _UP TO_ a single main computer restart situation in over 15 years of operation...

  4. Version 1.0 Silver badge
    FAIL

    Fried by radar - LOL

    If it could be fried by radar then how in Ares name did they expect it to make it to Mars?

  5. M7S

    "The spacecraft itself should be examined first"

    Given that what made it back to the surface is supposed to be under the Pacific Ocean, are we now to see "Scientists in Speedos" going for a quick dip?

  6. Silverburn
    Unhappy

    Poot poot

    Notable here are putins comments. Are all ego-maniacs all this paranoid?

    1. Loyal Commenter Silver badge

      Those weren't Putin's comments

      They were from Dmitri Medvedev. Your question still holds, however.

  7. Loyal Commenter Silver badge

    "I am not suggesting putting them up against the wall like under Josef Vissarionovich (Stalin), but I'm thinking it very loudly," he added.

    1. Peter Murphy
      WTF?

      It's still a little "Godwin's Law" for my taste.

      Imagine the European Space Agency had a snafu of its own, and Angela Merkel mused openly:

      "I am not suggesting hanging them using piano wire like under Heinrich Himmler..."

      Imagine the outcry. Even Nicolas Sarkozy would distance himself in the situation. Might even become David Cameron's BFF, hard as it may seem.

      But I guess in post-Soviet Russia it's ok to get nostalgic for Stalin, as long as you're being ironic about it. Look on the bright side: no one's doing the same for Beria.

  8. horse of a different colour

    In Soviet Russia, Martian moon probe you!

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    In other related news...

    ...schoolboy claims "dog ate my homework". Well, if it works for the head of Roscosmos...

  10. kyza

    Wot no HAARP?

    I'd have thought that would be the preferred device to play 'blame anyone else' game. I mean it can cause earthquakes according to the non-mental Mr Chavez.

    Srsly tho - when was the last time NASA even mentioned blaming the Russians when a probe went wrong?

  11. Charlie van Becelaere
    Alien

    I could have told you

    it wasn't the Americans.

    It's all "detailed" over at my second favourite site -

    http://iheardacouplethings.blogspot.com/2012/01/are-russian-space-troubles-from-beyond.html

    1. Tom 11
      Black Helicopters

      thank you kind sir!

      That site is amazing, you have given me something to do for the rest of the day :D

      But on topic, I would be more surprised if outside interference wasn't to blame for most of the russian long haul mission failures, they generally know what they're doing in space, and after 60 years of getting things to fly out of orbit, you'd have thought engines not firing would be the least of their woes.

  12. admiraljkb
    Alien

    NASA needed this probe to succeed as well

    Since NASA wanted (even needed) this to succeed as much as Roscosmos, I don't see it getting sabotaged. Even making accusations of that is really strange. Cold War is over, and has been over for quite a while., in spite of Putin trying to recreate the "glory years" of Communist Russia.

    <alien icon, cuz that makes only slightly more sense>

  13. Kaorukun
    Angel

    Guys, guys, hey guys, I know what happened, hey guys, listen!

    What if by accident they loaded a mock-up they used for training and such on the rocket instead of a real thing? And then they fried the real thing that stayed on Earth with microwaves trying to verify their claims.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "Load the one on the left comrade"

      No, No ... the OTHER left!

  14. The Man Who Fell To Earth Silver badge
    Boffin

    That is why the Russians lost the cold war

    They never take possibility for their screw ups, analyze then, and learn from them.

  15. Dylan Fahey
    Mushroom

    Comrad,...

    Comrad, where the hell is the red button?

  16. John A Blackley

    I'm not confident

    "The spacecraft itself should be examined first."

    Okay. Get yer wellies on, son.

  17. Archimedes_Circle
    Black Helicopters

    Looks like I'm out of a job

    Anyone looking to employ an ex USG scientist who's working on a space probe destroying radar system?

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Mars probes and microprocessors

    The Russians really haven't had much luck with microchips to Mars. Both Mars 6 and Mars 7 returned huge amounts of garbage when they finally reached the planet because solar radiation had eaten their microprocessors.

    Not that the software was much better; Fobos 1 received an untested software patch that resulted in it losing lock on the Sun and being unable to charge its batteries. Fobos 2's computer failed, but IIRC it was never determined if the error was hardware or software.

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