Earth Life Headed for Mars Moon

Earth Life Headed for Mars Moon

www.space.com

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.

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This is the most fascinating part of the mission:

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.

However, some fear Russia might contaminate Phobos or Earth by accident if the operation isn't carefully carried out.

www.space.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by infinite


awesome news imo

but i dont think we need to worry about contamination

if the russians are smart enough to pull this operation off without a hitch, then it only follows they are smart enough to prevent contamination

(I would HOPE!)

Phobos is named after the Greek God of FEAR,
while Deimos, the smaller moon, is named after a
figure representing DREAD in Greek Mythology.

Pleasant names for pleasant places.

The Soviets launched probes back in the late 80's.
Phobos_1

Phobos 1 operated nominally until an expected communications session on September 2, 1988 failed to occur.

Phobos_2

Phobos 2 operated nominally throughout its cruise and Mars orbital insertion phases on January 29, 1989, gathering data on the Sun, interplanetary medium, Mars, and Phobos. Shortly before the final phase of the mission, during which the spacecraft was to approach within 50 m of Phobos' surface and release two landers, one a mobile "hopper", the other a stationary platform, contact with Phobos 2 was lost.

Let's see if the Russians can get it right this time.

Anyone have that infamous picture of Phobos and a cylindrical object?

Originally posted by aecreate

Anyone have that infamous picture of Phobos and a cylindrical object?

Internos has an excellent post about it here:
www.abovetopsecret.com...

reply to post by ziggystar60


Wow, thanks! That's the one, very intriguing! I didn't know that the object
showed up in other pictures, around the same position in relation to Phobos.
VERY intriguing indeed, and now the Russians want another go at it? Nice.


edit to add-

Ah, I see it may have been just a camera artifact.. Ah well..

[edit on 1/9/09 by aecreate]