Russian officials have given up any hope to save the Phobos Grunt mission and have instead shifted their attention to the re-entry of the vehicle sometime next week.

Re-entry predictions have circled around the January 10 to 15 timeframe pending space-weather, with observers spotting Phobos-Grunt in the Earth's orbit. According to Spaceflight101, the spacecraft which is currently in a 246 by 188-kilometer orbit inclined 51.42 degrees, is predicted to re-enter on January 14 +/-5 days as the vehicle loses approximately 1.5 kilometers of altitude every day.

Russian space officials have earlier said that while the Phobos-Grunt contains some toxic materials like Cobalt-57, these will not pose a threat to the environment. They expect that all of these materials will explode when hitting the atmosphere so that none of it makes it back to Earth.

With regard to the Chinese Yinghuo-1 Satellite that was supposed to hitch a ride to Martian orbit aboard Phobos-Grunt, no technical details on any components of the Orbiter that might survive the entry process were given.

It remains uncertain whether any hazardous materials were used to construct the small vehicle. Yinghuo was declared lost by Chinese State Media back on November 17.

According to Spaceflight101.com, predictions on the vehicle's re-entry will become more and more refined as it approaches, "however there will always the some uncertainty expressed in margins in the decay predictions so that estimating the exact location of re-entry will be impossible." Even during the few hours prior to the event zones and continents can be excluded, it said.

"Tracking Phobos-Grunt will allow space agencies to work out when the rocket will begin re-entry, but does little to help predict where debris might land," Guardian Science Correspondent Ian Sample wrote.

"The spacecraft is travelling so fast it completes an orbit of Earth every 90 minutes, so even a small uncertainty in its trajectory or how it breaks up can make a difference of hundreds of miles on the Earth's surface."

Space officials said approximately 20 to 30 fragments of the nearly 14 ton probe are expected to survive re-entry and hit the Earth's surface at that time.

The Russian mission found itself stuck in orbit after its rocket boosters failed to fire. Computer malfunctions then prevented ground control to communicate with the probe, except for a brief period in late November.