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Russia Wants To Send Probe To Mars Moon

Posted on: Monday, 8 September 2003, 06:00 CDT

MOSCOW. Sept 8 (Interfax) - A unique probe, which Russian scientists have designed for studying Phobos [a Mars moon], will be launched in 2009, a representative of the Babakin Center Viktor Kudryashov told Interfax on Monday.

"It is a priority of the Russian federal space program. The probe will be launched aboard a Soyuz medium-class rocket from Baikonur," he said.

The mission's aim is to gather Phobos ground samples which will then be returned to Earth for analysis, Kudryashov said.

"Both moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos, are very interesting for the international scientific community from the point of view of studying the solar system's creation," he said.

Russian scientists tried to launch a probe to Phobos in the 1980s, but the attempts were aborted. Still, the expeditions contributed to the knowledge of interplanetary flight details, including ways of landing on small celestial bodies.

"A year after the probe is put in the trajectory of flight to Mars, it will reach the Mars orbit, switch over to the Phobos orbit, and then land on its surface. It will work on the Phobos surface for one day conducting scientific experiments. The probe will drill the Phobos surface to gather ground and stone samples. The landing capsule will then separate from the probe and return to Earth on its engines," Kudryashov said.

The capsule will only weigh 12 kilograms. Special search parties will look for it when the capsule passes dense layers of the atmosphere and falls to the Earth.

The probe platform will remain on Phobos for further studies in the long-term autonomous station mode, Kudryashov said.

"We expect the probe to work for about a year and make detailed filming of the planet and conduct scientific experiments and other operations. It will be transmitting the materials to the Earth, some of them in real-time," he noted.

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