Stranded Mars probe sends further signals (BBC)

[eppur_se_muova]

By Jonathan Amos
Science correspondent, BBC News

More attempts have been made by the European Space Agency (Esa) to contact the stricken Russian probe Phobos-Grunt - with partial success.

Communication with the craft as it passed over Australia was achieved again on Thursday, but not all of the commands prompted a response.

Phobos-Grunt was launched two weeks ago on a mission to visit one of Mars' moons, but became stuck in Earth orbit.

Engineers still hope to fix the probe and get the mission under way.

But first they need to be able to talk with it. Europe's 15m dish in Perth was the first to successfully make contact with the spacecraft in a fortnight of trying by tracking stations around the globe.
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more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15872653