Category Archives: spacecraft

Incoming!: Phobos-Grunt to come crashing to earth next month, possibly trailing clouds of toxic materials, radioactive debris

Posted on December 16, 2011 by

Phobos-Grunt has now been deemed unrecoverable, as the BBC just reported: Russia’s space agency (Roscosmos) says its unsuccessful Mars probe will fall back to Earth next month. The unmanned Phobos-Grunt spacecraft became stranded in orbit in November. The agency says … Continue reading →

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NASA Mars Rover will carry over ten pounds of plutonium into space, raising questions about Russian Mars mission

Posted on November 18, 2011 by

World Nuclear News carried an article today on the NASA Mars Rover Curiosity, scheduled to be launched on next week:   Curiosity’s nuclear battery is the first of a new ‘multi-mission’ design that uses solid state thermocouples to produce electricity … Continue reading →

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