According to the findings of an inter-departmental commission, the failure of the interplanetary probe Phobos-Grunt was caused by a combination of several factors, including the impact of cosmic rays. The head of the Russian Space Agency Roskosmos, Vladimir Popovkin said that the developers should have taken into account the impact of cosmic rays, and that some staff members had been held to account.
Contrary to expectations by mass media, the programmers involved in the project Phobos-Grunt have not been blamed for the failure. The mission failed due to a malfunction of the onboard computer system which was a result of the impact of heavily charged space particles, Vladimir Popovkin said. He noted that the effect of heavily charged particles was not specified in the mission’s standard technical documentation. But it must have been taken into account in the implementations of such a major project because the influence of cosmic rays has been thoroughly researched. Here is an opinion from a cosmonaut and adviser at the Energia Space Corporation, Alexander Alexandrov.
“All this has been known for a long time, and many articles have been published on the topic. To test the equipment, particles are accelerated in synchrophasotrons to simulate space conditions. At present, we are testing the effect of cosmic rays on the equipment, and the results of the tests will provide a clear answer. However, I am not sure that the electronic equipment used was so sensitive that even weak radiation could render it unfunctional,” Alexander Alexandrov said.
Everything depends on the level of protection afforded to electronic equipment against radiation. Cosmic rays are elementary particles that travel at very high speeds. Space satellites should be manufactured using special materials that can withstand cosmic rays, says Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Yuri Karash.
“Satellites must be made of materials resistant to the influence of these particles. It’s possible to make such hardware. But of course it would be quite expensive. By all appearances, Phobos-Grunt was fitted with counterfeit microchips from China. These are less resistant than high quality hardware,” Yuri Karash said.
It must be said that head of Roskosmos Vladimir Popovkin admitted that low quality foreign microchips had been used in making the probe. He said that the software systems installed on other future projects are being currently tested. Those who are to blame for the Phobos-Grunt failure have been held to account.
As for its Mars exploration projects, Russia has no intention to postpone its plans. If Russia manages to reach an agreement with the European Space Agency, it will join the ExoMars project, Vladimir Popovkin said. If we don’t, Roskosmos will relaunch the Phobos-Grunt mission, he added.
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