Fears over ‘toxic’ Russian spaceship crashing back to Earth dismissed

An Australian engineer has played down fears over a crippled Russian spaceship crashing back to Earth with a load of toxic fuel aboard.

Mission controllers lost contact with the 165-million dollar Phobos Grunt spacecraft last week and authorities said it is likely to crash back to Earth in January.

After a flawless launch on a Zenith 2-SB rocket from the Baiknour Cosmodrome in the central Asian republic of Kazakhstan, the spacecraft successfully reached an initial orbit.

However, the probe suddenly went silent.

Two scheduled rocket burns, which should have sent the probe on its course to Mars failed to eventuate, leaving the probe loaded with 12 tonnes of unused highly toxic hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide fuel in a rapidly decaying orbit.

“Unlike kerosene and most other rocket propellants which degrade over time, hydrazine is easily storable in space. That’s why it’s traditionally used in geostationary satellites which last in orbit for 15 years no problem” ABC Science quoted aerospace engineer Ian Bryce from the Australian Space Research Institute as saying.

“Hydrazine consists of nitrogen, hydrogen and carbon with double bonds on the nitrogen making it very toxic. The oxidiser nitrogen tetroxide is nitrogen and oxygen again with double bonds on the nitrogen making it toxic,” he explained.

Scientists aren’t sure if it’s still liquid or whether the cold conditions of space have turned it into a sold block of toxic ice.

Numerous press reports have expressed fears the spacecraft’s fuel represents a dangerous toxic threat to Earth but Bryce said the hydrazine would not survive re-entry.

“The heat of re-entry and ultraviolet radiation from the Sun in the upper atmosphere should be enough to burn up the fuel regardless of what state it’s in. Because it’s so volatile, it will disperse fairly quickly,” he said.