The exploration of Mars

I take it the Russians didn't pay up the several million Martian dollars their previous Mars-craft was being held hostage for.

Speculation is that Phobos Grunt debris has crashed to earth near Charleville in Queensland, Australia. An aircraft report of falling debris and impact site are yet to be confirmed.

This is interesting to know that there are still attempts by other countries to go to distant planets. I was under the impression that we hadn't sent and ships or probes to another planet for decades. Still the galactic ghoul is a humorous twist on things. It is disappointing that the russian's probes don't seem willing to cooperate. Maybe they have a fear of going to mars. :)

The math and minds that are behind these missions are incredible. So many comments above are bashing their failures but I say well done. Space is really the only place that has not been disturbed by humans (or at least the least amount). I do not think their is a ghoul because many more missions would have been stopped. But there is also the fact that we as the human public do not always hear (through news) the truth. There are many things that governments could still be hiding from us or from other governments. Why would the U.S. tell any other country about life they found, governments are selfish and have only their best in mind. Plus who is going to find out, there are not many people or robots in space to radio back and tell. Either way space is going to intrigue millions for millions of years, if we last that long.

This article definitely sparks the curiosity and mystery aspect of any person. But realistically speaking, the Galactic Ghoul probably does not exist. The missions that have tried to launch probes to Mars and its surroundings have had to travel thousands of miles, and any numbers of things could go wrong along the way. It would be awesome if there was other life out there, but my bets are that the equipment was not made ready for the brutal trip to Mars's regions. Hopefully the Russian probe does not fall back into a populated area of Earth.

It's wild that we can even put these things in space. It's too bad they have to malfunction and can't perform their tasks, thus being a complete waste of money. There are limitless possibilities in space, and it will be very interesting to see what we obtain from our efforts in the future.

Just a reminder of the complexity of space exploration. While many people may simply brush it off as being simple these days since it was done successfully 40 years ago, it is still incredibly complicated, especially getting to Mars effectively. On a side note about the beginning of the article, noting that there is no evidence for life anywhere else in the universe, it is important to remember that "life" could take on many forms elsewhere in the universe and may not be similar at all to life as we know it on Earth.

Sounds to me like this "ghoul" is more of a lack or Russian engineering than space monster. I realize that landing a small probe on a distant planet may not be the easiest thing in the world, but every launch needs to be successful today. Every failed mission puts scientists, engineers, and funding programs confused and broke. If we ever want to put a person on mars, these small unmanned missions need to be consistent and dependable. Why would an astronaut want to climb into a space ship heading to mars after watching a robot's engines fail to fire and come crashing down to earth.

All this should put into perspective the magnitude of the accomplishment that was Apollo 11. 3 men to the moon and back, 42 years ago, with the most rudimentary of computers.

And for you armchair critics out there, bear in mind that America, Japan, and Europe have also failed undertaking similar missions. Rather than mock Russia's mishaps, we should regret the current troubles of a once great competitor in one of humanity's ultimate collective challenges. Their triumphs were ours too. So too their losses.

We're all Aliens, made up of space dust. Not to mention that there are already creatures on earth just as different from each other as other aliens will be when we meet them. The universe has randomly thrown up different forms of life within Earth's own biosphere, its certain that this pattern would emerge elsewhere. Why I myself am from Betelgeuse, and I don't find you offensive at all.

I have always thought that if each star that we can see is similar to our sun, some having orbiting planets, there has to be something else out there. I'm not sure how close to home these other species would be but I do believe it is possible that there is life on other planets.

But the idea of a "Great Galactic Ghoul" is so much more comfortable than accepting that the problem is either human error or inadequate quality control!

The reason for the malfunction is probably just human error. Some of the connections were engineered poorly or perhaps unwanted waves may have interfered with the scientists signaling. I'm sure it is also difficult to send signaling to spacecraft as far away as mars. The distance between the planets is the ghoul that has been swallowing up our spacecraft.

A reminder of the complexity and difficulty of managing missions in extreme environments, with highly engineered bespoke machines over millions of miles. The GGG - also known as human fallibility.

irresponsible agencies which endanger the lives of others by launching unsafe probes should be barred from space faring.

And these are the people NASA now relies on for our manned missions to space.

To make a serious point about a lighthearted piece; the Great Galactic Ghoul is clearly misnamed. If he(?she) is confined to the orbit of Mars they are hardly more 'galactic' than we are (or a typical ant's nest if you prefer).

The point is a glitch of scale - even the 'Great Solar System Ghoul' would be off an order of magnitude or so, and the GGG may be alliterative but is off so many orders of magnitude as top look silly.