Posted on 11/05/2011 3:35:49 PM PDT by kronos77
Mission to Martian moon is the country's first interplanetary attempt since 1996. Eric Hand 04 November 2011 Main
Phobos, as seen in 2008 by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona Article tools Print Email Rights and Permissions Share/bookmark
For the first time in 15 years, Russia is getting back into the business of interplanetary space science. It plans to launch an ambitious mission on 8 November to return a sample of soil from the Martian moon Phobos.
The Phobos–Grunt mission (which means Phobos-soil) would welcome Russia back to the elite group of nations — the United States, Japan and the European countries — that do science beyond the Moon. China would also join the club, as embedded in the spacecraft is a small Chinese satellite, Yinghuo-1, that will separate from Phobos–Grunt to orbit and observe Mars.
Success could pave the way for Russia to pursue more ambitious missions based on similar designs — missions have been proposed to Mercury, Venus or even Jupiter's moon Europa. "The major outcome is that Russia might establish its credibility again," says Roald Sagdeev, former director of the Space Research Institute (IKI) in Moscow, which has developed most of the 20 science instruments on the payload. "It would open the door for major international missions."
(Excerpt) Read more at nature.com ...
They have to go see, right? If lightning strikes twice?
In the meantime, NASA is building bridges to Islam...
Their last Phobos probe went out after seeing a mysterious object..
“Their last Phobos probe went out after seeing a mysterious object..”
That’s because Phobos is an abandoned alien space station! At least that’s what the Sci-Fi book I read in the Third Grade was about.
Exactly.
Starz just ran 2010 the other night...
Actually, the Soviets were so russian to get the rocket off in time for
that biennial window, that they neglected to remove a
diagnostic prom from the spacecraft.
Something happened on the way, and it re-booted to the prom.
Any way, that prom didn't contain code to maintain solar panel alignment.
Don't know if they could have done anything about it in time, let
alone at all, but once the batteries died, the was mission over,
except for the M&M meeting.
I can’t wait till they explain to the people on the ISS the proper way to bow towards Mecca when in Low Earth Orbit.
Was it 'full of stars' ?
Can anyone explain how Phobos was part of Gillivars Travels Tale years BEFORE it was discovered by astronomers?
Gullivers Travels is quite a book
The latter part where he compared the court room to “a bunch of Yahoo’s” shocked me quite a bit
And the scientist who claims he can turn sunlight into gold if he can only get ANOTHER 7 years funding
I know! I... 
know!
Well, it seems she found that Jack Black's stare at her bikini scene... 
in last years Gulliver's Travels unnerved her so, she left the production--
Bender, that's Phoebe Cates in Fast Times at Ridgemont High... 
the question Balding_Eagle asked was about the Martian moon named Phobos!
Gadzooks, Hank, Jack Black mooned... 
a Martian named Phobos?
No, Bendy, he moon... 
me!
But I blew him up... 
with my Uranium Pu-36 blaster.
Well, Jack Black got what he deserved... 
after staring at Phoebe in her red bikini!
But, Bend--- Oh... 
never mind!
If at first you don’t succeed...
Thanks kronos77.
Trying to recruit a crew to make that first solar landing?
Sorry to say there is no soil on Phobos-—pulverized regolith maybe, but no soil.
Hope they can get it off the ground.
They did, but apparently not out of Earth orbit.
Saw the following at Space.com reading about the asteroid flyby.
Russian Mars Moon Probe Suffers Big Failure After Launch
Isn't it the [Soviet] Russian practice to rename failed missions "Cosmos-'number'"?
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