Cosmic rays blamed for Phobos-Grunt fiasco Russian space boffins have come up with a new reason to explain why duff Martian probe Phobos-Grunt fell out of the sky - cosmic rays. The head of space agency Roscosmos said that an investigation into the short-lived spacecraft had discovered that radiation caused a glitch in the onboard computer system, state news agency RIA …
I am actually supporting Popovkin's position here. Counterfeit components are a problem for the _whole_ aerospace industry, not just in Russia. The shuttle accidents are obviously a different matter, but there are documented cases of counterfeit parts ending up in U.S. military kit - and they probably police their supply chain more rigorously than anyone else out there.
Good article - thanks!
I'm puzzled that there's been no mention of a backup "grunt" - I thought it was reasonable common to maintain a earthbound backup version of the flying hardware so that you can properly tests before it flies and debug during the voyage.
Offhand I'd inclined to suspect counterfeit components - remarking commercial grade to mil grade has the potential to make a lot of money and it's very hard to prove until after the event ... having at one time personally kissed $10k away due to counterfeit SMT chips in a build.
Good science will answer the question - assuming that anyone really wants to know the answer.
Right, they are trying to save their ars now... their explanation should not be completely ruled out though. It is better to lose an automatic ship than a manned one. The Roscosmos' dear colleagues have managed to squander many billions of dollars on the Space Shuttle program whilest losing two spacecrafts with much more valuable human lives. (There was some sabotage too). They turned back to the Russians, 'cause the latter have better and safer rockets.
Rushed code and not enough testing due to an enviroment where no one wants to cause any delays to the launch date - national pride at stake etc etc.
At least , thats my guess. But I find this explanation VERY hard to believe. It just reads like another "it wasn't our fault!" excuse.
Either a (man-made) software fault or some totally off-the-shelf electronic component going "pop". That being far more likely than a stray cosmic ray flipping a bit in a register or whatever.
Planes have crashed in the past because a ten-cent bulb (less likely to happen with an LED) failed and didn't light up to tell the pilot the wheels weren't locked or whatever. Now you would get a voice announcement as well.
Cosmic rays certainly *can* cause failure in electronics but they are quite well screened and hardened in satellites and probes and always have been. Look at Voyager: even after decades in freezing space it still works and that using quite basic electronics -- but wrapped up really well.
"Rushed code and not enough testing due to an enviroment where no one wants to cause any delays to the launch date - national pride at stake etc etc..."
I don't have the time -- or, admittedly, the motivation -- to go off scouring astronautix.com for each individual example, but iirc, Soviet/Russian spaceflight history is rife with instances of massive catastrophic failures caused by rushed, buggy on-board computer code and hardware components being rushed through development and testing, owing to engineers' and programmers' fears of putting the project behind schedule. Soyuz I is one of the more infamous examples.
Both probes were effectively dead on arrival at Mars because of radiation damage to their microprocessors. Mars 6 deployed its lander but it died before it could reach the Martian surface - some data about the atmosphere's composition was returned however. Mars 7 ejected its lander too early for the same reason, both the lander and the orbital module went into orbit around the Sun.
What's shocking is that this happened in 1973.
In 1988 and 1989 respectively, the two Fobos probes were lost because of software issues.
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