Russian scientists hope to send other probe to Phobos

Director-general and designer-general of the Lavochkin scientific centre Viktor Khartov, speaking at academic hearings on cosmonautics on Tuesday, said that they hoped the work to correct the errors would be done and another attempt would be made to carry out the mission. "Russia must solve the very difficult problem," he added.

The unsuccessful Phobos-Grunt mission is a tragedy for the centre, the director-general said.

"We attempted to make a jump across 30 years. For the purpose, absolutely new decisions were gathered without flight experience," Khartov noted.

According to him, the Phobos-Grunt automated interplanetary station, in essence, was a sum of three craft.

The failure violated the logic of other projects based on the mission. "The jump across 30 years was unsuccessful," he admitted.

A commission is working to investigate what caused the failure. The commission consists of good specialists. "In any case, we are grateful to them, as their independent examination is very useful for our work," Khartov said. "It is a pity that the work was not done before the launch," he added; Kazinform cites Itar-Tass.

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