Mars probe falls back to Earth

November 18, 1996
Web posted at: 11:00 a.m. EST (1600 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Its purpose was to explore the Red Planet.

It ended up in the Pacific Ocean.

The crippled Russian Mars space probe fell to Earth at about 0130 GMT Monday (8:30 p.m. Sunday EST), the United States Space Command said.

Alan Hodges, director general of Emergency Management Australia, later told reporters it landed 620 miles (about 1,000 kilometers) west of South America, near Easter Island, at 31 degrees south, 96 degrees 30 minutes west at 0134 GMT Monday (8:34 p.m. EST).

Emergency Management Australia is the federal agency that coordinates emergency services nationwide.

The U.S. Space Command, known as SPACECOM, confirmed that the probe re-entered Earth's atmosphere in the southern Pacific west of Chile. But officials said there was no way to tell whether any of it survived reentry. SPACECOM had been tracking the probe since it faltered in Earth's orbit.

The Chilean Navy had received no official word of the crash, but recovery of any debris from the spacecraft would be difficult if not impossible because of the ocean's 18,000-foot depth, a Chilean naval officer said. "This area has one of the deepest ocean floors in the world. Any kind of recovery, if it were possible, would be very, very tough," the officer told Reuters.

Originally, the unmanned six-ton craft was expected to crash in east-central Australia.

The Mars probe, which failed soon after launch Saturday night, carried four small radioactive plutonium-powered energy generators, or "batteries," which were to power robotic landing vehicles.

Russian space officials told U.S. and Australian officials that they believe there was no danger of radioactive contamination, U.S. National Security Council official Robert Bell told CNN Sunday. (128K/10 sec. AIFF or WAV sound)

"We are talking about a very modest amount of plutonium," he said. The spacecraft carries about 200 grams of plutonium, he said.

"Nevertheless, in what is considered to be the extremely unlikely event that one or more of the batteries break open, the United States is prepared to offer all necessary assistance to any nation to deal with any resulting problems" he said.

President Clinton, vacationing in Hawaii, has been in touch with Australian Prime Minister John Howard.

Howard, in a news conference, had urged people in Australia to use "extreme caution" if the probe came down on Australia.

U.S. space expert John Logsdon said the canisters of plutonium pose very little threat to human life.

When a plutonium-powered Soviet satellite landed in northern Canada in 1978 there was little problem, he said.

"The container survived re-entry and the only place there was plutonium was the immediate area," Logsdon said.

"They've been used very frequently," he said. "There have been reactors re-enter with no problem in the past. You can't say the cause for alarm is zero, but I think it's pretty low."

The main concern from this failure is for NASA officials who are depending on the Russians to provide equipment for the international space station now in the works, Logsdon said.

"That is a broader concern for the long range," he said.

"We've made Russia an intimate partner in the space station program and are depending on Russian hardware for the success of the program," Logsdon said. "I think we need to be very sure that the quality control, the ability of the Russian industry to produce in its current environment is adequate."

The Mars probe, carrying scientific equipment from the U.S. and 20 European countries, had been scheduled to reach Mars in September, 1997.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

 

Mission Mars special section November 1996

Special Section:

• Space Exploration Gallery

Related stories:

• Surveyor soars toward red planet - November 7, 1996
• British present new evidence of life on Mars - November 1, 1996
• Pathfinder to roam Mars in search of possible life - October 1, 1996

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• Mars Global Surveyor Home Page
• Johnathon's Space Home Page

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