One of the reasons for the failure of the Phobos-Grunt interplanetary station to enter a given orbit could be the effect of an artificially created plasma formation on it, said Professor Yuri Kubarev, vice-president of the Prokhorov Academy of Engineering Sciences, the author of the discovery in the field of plasma physics and the creator of the magnetoplasmodynamic accelerator
“It is impossible to exclude the influence on the spacecraft of the artificially created plasma formation as a result of the operation of any powerful sources of laser, electromagnetic, radio or beam radiation,” Kubarev said.
“The opinion on the possibility of external influence on Phobos-Grunt, expressed by the head of Roscosmos Vladimir Popovkin, does not cause me any doubts,” he added.
According to the scientist, natural plasma disturbances and methods of their artificial creation were identified by Soviet scientists more than 30 years ago when testing accelerators installed on meteorological rockets in the Bush series experiments.
For example, Kubarev said, as part of the test of the magnetoplasmodynamic accelerator in the area of the Brazilian magnetic anomaly, the electronic-optical equipment of the research vessel filmed a large plasma formation created by the accelerator.
"A plasma channel arose between this formation and the ship, through which a stream of high-energy particles" poured out "on board the ship," the scientist said.
This experiment showed that with the help of fairly simple devices from a scientific point of view, it is possible to penetrate into the magnetosphere. “In other words, conductive channels with an artificial plasma formation were created, capable of influencing the behavior of the rocket's instruments, and possibly the spacecraft of the Phobos-Grunt type,” Kubarev said.
The scientist noted that regardless of whether the plasma formation of artificial or natural origin got in the way of the spacecraft, it will affect the electrification of the spacecraft, have a detrimental effect on its work.
Earlier, the head of Roskosmos, Vladimir Popovkin, did not rule out that an accident at the launch of the Phobos-Grunt interplanetary station could have occurred due to an external effect on the spacecraft.
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“I don’t want to blame anyone, but today there are very powerful means of influencing spacecraft, the possibility of which cannot be ruled out,” he said. According to him, it is still not clear why the Phobos-Grunt propulsion system was not launched.
“Frequent failures with our devices during the period when they fly over the shadow side of the Earth for Russia, where we do not see the device and do not receive telemetry from it, are also incomprehensible,” Popovkin said.