[meteorite-list] ESA Station Unable To Establish New Link With Phobos-Grunt

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 25 Nov 2011 18:50:24 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <201111260250.pAQ2oO49028028_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Operations/SEMQTNZW5VG_0.html

ESA station unable to establish new link with Phobos-Grunt
European Space Agency
25 November 2011

After establishing contact with Russia's Phobos-Grunt Mars mission earlier
this week, ESA's tracking station in Australia received no signal from the
spacecraft last night. ESA engineers are investigating the cause in close
collaboration with Russian mission controllers.

Despite listening intently during four scheduled communication passes during
the night of 2425 November, ESA's 15 m-diameter dish antenna at Perth,
Australia, did not receive any signals.

The slots for communication, timed to coincide when PhobosGrunt was passing
over in direct line-of-sight with the station, began at 20:12 GMT and ran
until 04:04 GMT. Each lasted just 68 minutes, providing very limited windows
for sending commands and receiving a response.

"Our Russian colleagues provided a full set of telecommands for us to send
up," said Wolfgang Hell, ESA's Phobos-Grunt Service Manager, "and Perth
station was set to use the same techniques and configurations that worked
earlier. But we observed no downlink radio signal from the spacecraft."

ESA's contact with the Mars mission on the night of 22 November marked the
first receipt of spacecraft data since contact was lost shortly after
separation from the launch vehicle was confirmed on 8 November.

One piece of positive news: observations from the ground indicate that the
orbit of Phobos-Grunt has become more stable.

"This could mean that the spacecraft's attitude, or orientation, is also now
stable, which could help in regaining contact because wed be able to predict
where its two antennas are pointing," said Manfred Warhaut, ESA's Head of
Mission Operations at the European Space Operations Centre, Darmstadt,
Germany.

"The team here at ESOC will do their utmost to assist the Russians in
investigating the situation."

The next scheduled communication slot for ESA's Perth station is set for the
night of 25 November, when it will again be allocated to support
Phobos-Grunt.

[NOTE: An image and weblinks supporting this release are available at
http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Operations/SEMQTNZW5VG_1.html ]
Received on Fri 25 Nov 2011 09:50:24 PM PST