November 10, 2011
Reporting from Moscow
[...]
Space agency officials said they had about two weeks to redirect Phobos-Ground before its power sources run out and a relative narrow window of time to reach Mars closes. If they succeed, it should reach Mars' orbit in 2012 and will collect ground samples from Phobos to bring back to Earth. It is Russia's first interplanetary mission since the Mars 96 probe crashed shortly after launch in 1996.
If they fail, experts worry that tons of toxic fuel carried by Phobos-Ground could turn it into one of the most dangerous spacecraft to fall from orbit.
"About 7 tons of nitrogen tetroxide and hydrazine, which could freeze before ultimately entering, will make it the most toxic falling satellite ever," James Oberg, a NASA veteran who now works as a space consultant, said in an email to the Associated Press. "What was billed as the heaviest interplanetary probe ever may become one of the heaviest space derelicts to ever fall back to Earth out of control."
But Oberg told the AP that it was still possible to regain control of the probe, saying, "Nothing irreversibly bad has happened."