Phobos-Grunt re-entry is projected to enters Earth atmosphere in early January 2012. Most of the spacecraft and leftover onboard fuel will burn up in the atmosphere, although some pieces may survive reentry, including the Planetary Society’s LIFE experiment. The return capsule is designed to survive the heat of reentry and make a survivable trajectory to the ground, and can withstand an impact force of 4,000 Gs. The engineers from Analytical Graphics, Inc. (AGI) have put together an animation which recaps what has happened with the Phobos-Grunt spacecraft so far, and what is expected to occur during the uncontrolled re-entry.
The LIFE experiment was originally designed to study the effects of the interplanetary environment on various organisms during a long duration flight, and how they would react beyond the Van Allen Radiation Belts, which protect organisms in low Earth orbit from some of the most powerful components of space radiation. Although the spacecraft has not traveled outside of the belts, the organisms contained within the LIFE biomodule will have been in space for more than two months when the probe reenters the atmosphere. Studying the samples may provide some insight on radiation in low Earth orbit. (UniverseToday)
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