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Space

The View from Space: A closer look at Phobos

By John Holliman

September 2, 1998
Web posted at 3:21 pm ET

In this column:
holliman

(CNN) -- Mars Global Surveyor has traveled around the martian surface nearly 550 times so far, and the satellite's bosses on Earth want to steer it closer to the surface starting the middle of this month.

Problems with one of the two solar panels that provide electricity to MGS convinced managers to delay the final series of aerobraking maneuvers that would force the satellite into a much closer orbit.

Right now, MGS has a wide elliptical orbit that brings it as close as 108 miles from Mars, and as far away as 11,000 miles.

In the past couple of weeks, MGS has taken some close-up pictures of the martian moon Phobos. It's nothing like our moon. Phobos is shaped like a giant potato and is much smaller than the moon we see at night.

Russia's money crunch

Russia's financial troubles were not helped much by this week's Clinton-Yeltsin summit. The two leaders did agree on a program to share information from the United States and its missile early warning system. One result of Russia's money trouble is that it has been unable to maintain its own missile launch warning system. One thing that didn't come from the summit was any guarantee that the Russian space agency will be able to deliver its parts for the new space station on time.

NASA managers are going to meet later this month with their counterparts from the other nations participating in the station to either commit to the November 20 launch of the first piece of hardware from Russia, or delay it until the United States and the other partners can be assured that Russia will be able to do what it has promised for the station.

Want to be an isolationist?

The Russians have decided to build a long-duration space flight simulator and are asking for volunteers to climb aboard. They've asked for 70 people to spend up to eight months inside a 3,500 cubic foot chamber that is about the same size as a Russian module on the new station.

The isolation tank is located a few miles from the Kremlin. The last time the Russians did this, they developed the life support and communications systems used on the Mir space station. This program is open to anybody, so if you want to participate, send me an e-mail and I'll put you in touch.

John Holliman's column appears on Wednesday.

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