Russia is set to launch a probe to the Martian moon Phobos by 2022, the head of the Russian Space Research Institute has revealed. The renewal of the ambitious program, which includes taking samples of the moon’s soil, comes despite previous failure.
“We plan to get back to Phobos in 2020-2022,” the institute’s director, Lev Zeleny, announced on Tuesday, speaking at the Russian Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
The new interplanetary probe mission will become “a springboard for implementing other similar international programs,” he added. It is currently codenamed “Boomerang.”
Earlier in April, the scientist said that the mission to the Martian vicinity will be repeated despite the failure of the Phobos-Grunt probe in 2011.
October 23rd, 2013
Phobos-Grunt-2: Russia to probe Martian moon by 2022 Mars Daily
September 17th, 2007
Mice and men: space gerbils blaze trail for humans to Mars Mars Daily
Ten gerbils took off from the Russian-run Baikonur space centre in Kazakhstan on Friday for a 12-day voyage to test the possible effects of a human mission to Mars, an official said Friday. A Foton-M spaceship with the rodents on board took off on a Soyuz rocket, mission official Anfisa Kazakova told AFP by telephone.
The rocket is to include a cage with 10 rodents with the aim of studying the physiological and biological effects of long-term flights, she said.