Prospects Dim For Stranded Russian Mars Probe

Russia once again failed to send orbit-raising commands to its stranded Phobos-Grunt spacecraft on Nov. 29 via a European Space Agency (ESA) ground station in Perth, Australia, dimming hopes that the Mars’ moon sample-return mission can be salvaged. Subsequent attempts on Nov. 30 using ESA’s 15-meter dia. antenna at its Maspalomas tracking station in the Canary Islands were ...