Russia is pushing forward on a robotic mission to Mars dubbed Phobos-Grunt - now seemingly on a countdown clock that ticks away for an October launch.
If the project is on track and off the ground by that time, Phobos-Grunt would arrive at the red planet in August of next year.
The project also includes deployment of a Chinese sub-satellite -Yinghuo-1 meaning "Firefly-1" - that will gauge the Martian past in terms of how surface water on the red planet did a disappearing act.
Phobos-Grunt is intended also to cast an orbital eye on Mars too, but then plop down on Phobos - one of that planet's two moons, scrape up on-the-spot samples and then transport those extraterrestrial tidbits to Earth in July 2012. As it swoops by Earth, the spacecraft is to release a capsule containing all the samples gathered on Phobos, to land on Earth.
http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/090107-tw-russia-phobos-life.html
No comments:
Post a Comment