Signal picked up from Russia's stranded Mars probe (BBC)

[eppur_se_muova]

By Jonathan Amos
Science correspondent, BBC News

Contact has finally been made with Russia's troubled Mars mission, says the European Space Agency (Esa).

The agency reports that its tracking station in Perth, Australia, picked up a signal from the Phobos-Grunt probe.

Esa is now working with Russian engineers to see how best to maintain communications with the craft.

Phobos-Grunt has been stuck in Earth orbit since its launch on 9 November, unable to fire the engine that would take it on to Mars.

It raises the hope that Russian controllers can establish what is wrong with the spacecraft and fix it.
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more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15850516

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. I hope it's still got the battery power to do what is needed

They said that was the main worry - it was designed to deploy solar panels after getting out of orbit, so had limited battery life to see it through to that stage. But they are also talking about it charging batteries with solar panels now.

Ahh - a bit more here:

Motors failed to fire twice to steer it on a course for Mars, and it is still carrying the fuel that would have been used in this maneuver.

But before losing control of the probe, the Russians sent out instructions for it to deploy its solar panels, an ESA official said.

"Initially, it was thought that the spacecraft would die after three days when its battery ran out.

"But the solar panels played a crucial role yesterday, enabling the ground station in Perth to make contact," the source said.

http://news.discovery.com/space/phobos-grunt-communication-australia-111123.html