As of Friday, EAS has decided to stop trying to communicate with the Russian Phobos-Grunt (or Fobos-Grunt) probe which didn’t make it out of Earth’s orbit on its mission to Phobos. I think it’s fair to say that the most likely outcome now is a mid-January re-entry. Thankfully, NASA’s Curiosity is safely on its way to Mars and expected to land next summer.
But, as a robot tinkerer, mushy sentimentalist and serial-anthropomorhiser, I believe that every little robot deserves to be remembered and every mission to learn more about our universe, no matter the outcome, is a special thing deserving proper credit for trying. So, I’d like to say farewell to Phobos-Grunt, the little robot probe who tried, in a positive way.
So long, little robot. You tried. And that’s all we can ask.
[click to see full image]
Poor Grunt.
On another note: When I saw an article by you with that title pop up in my feed, I immediately thought that something bad happened to the Mad Art Bot :-O
No, Maddy is fine except for a little congestion in her extruder (which I’m trying to remedy). 🙂
I like this post.
When I look up to the night sky, I think of the ill-fated Mars Polar Lander, which nobody wants to remember.
Not to mention the ill-fated Beagle 2. :/
Aww this actually made me sad. Poor little guy.