Russia Plans to Launch Probe to Mars’s Moon Phobos in 2009

MOSCOW. Oct 8 (Interfax) – Russia is planning to launch an unmanned spacecraft to Mars’s moon Phobos in 2009, said chief of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) Anatoly Perminov.

“A draft federal space program currently envisions the Phobos- Grunt project, under which the flight of an automatic spacecraft to Mars’s moon Phobos is planned for 2009,” Perminov said in a report at the 55th International Astronautical Congress in Vancouver.

Roscosmos is planning to develop space exploration programs using unmanned spacecraft, Perminov said.

“The value of such projects is that they can help receive scientific and technical data essential for providing safe manned missions to other planets,” he said.

In addition, these studies will help receive fundamental information on characteristics of planets and other small objects of the solar system, particularly concerning the existence of resources that could be used to provide for crews’ work, primarily water, Perminov said.

Such projects as an interplanetary manned expedition call for combining technical and financial potentials of all leading space powers and can be implemented only via a wide international cooperation, he said.