Mars Exploration News  
China To Participate In Russian Flight To Phobos

Phobos (pictured) is a highly non-spherical moon, orbiting Mars at a distance of less than 6,000 kilometers (3728 miles) and traveling faster than the rotation of Mars itself.
by Staff Writers
Moscow (RIA Novosti) Nov 22, 2006
China will participate in a Russian project to fly to a Martian moon, a deputy head of Russia's Federal Space Agency said Tuesday. "An agreement is being prepared whereby a Chinese micro-satellite, worth some $1 billion, will be installed on the Russian station Phobos-soil," Yury Nosenko told a press conference.

"While entering the orbit of Mars, the Chinese satellite will be detached from the Russian spacecraft and will become an artificial satellite of Mars," he said.

A project developer said in September that Russia will launch a spacecraft to Phobos, the larger of two Martian moons, in 2009, which will then return to Earth with a sample of its soil.

Dr. Efraim Akim, of the M.V. Keldysh Institute of Applied Mechanics, said the craft will be launched from a platform deployed in an intermediary near-Earth orbit.

He said there will be no need to use a heavy booster rocket, which are expensive to launch.

The launch window for the voyage to Phobos is October 2009, and the journey will take 10 to 11 months. The spacecraft will begin its return journey to Earth in 2011, which will take another 10 to 11 months.

Phobos is a highly non-spherical moon, orbiting Mars at a distance of less than 6,000 kilometers (3728 miles) and traveling faster than the rotation of Mars itself.

According to Russian Academy of Sciences member Mikhail Marov, Phobos became a satellite of Mars millions of years ago, so studying material from the asteroid will give scientists information as to the origins of the Solar System and of the Earth.

Neither NASA nor the European Space Agency (ESA) are planning flights to Phobos, Marov said. "This is a niche that foreign space agencies have left us, not only because it is an exceptionally difficult task, but also because we have already invested work in this area of planetary research."

The landing will be a complicated operation due to the moon's small size and high orbital speed.

The spacecraft will use new materials, allowing for a substantial reduction in weight compared to its predecessors, and high-precision Earth-based control systems will be employed for the project.

Russian Academy of Sciences President Yury Osipov called the project "a unique chance for Russia to return to planetary research."

The Russian Space Agency said in September that Russia and China might conclude a Moon exploration agreement by the end of the year.

China has already successfully launched into orbit two manned space vehicles. Its first manned flight three years ago made it the third country to launch a human being into space on its own, after Russia and the U.S.

Source: RIA Novosti

Community
Email This Article
Comment On This Article

Related Links
ROSCOSMOS
Mars News and Information at MarsDaily.com
Mars News and Information at MarsDaily.com
Lunar Dreams and more



Memory Foam Mattress Review
Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News


Rosetta Healthy And On Target For February Mars Flyby
Paris, France (ESA) Nov 21, 2006
The Rosetta spacecraft and its payload are in excellent health and everything is set to prepare the Mars flyby on 25 February 2007. On 26 July the Rosetta spacecraft came out of the two-month Near Sun Hibernation Mode (NSHM). The spacecraft performance during that period was nominal. Subsequently it was reconfigured to Active Cruise Mode. Rosetta is back to two ground station passes per week, which are used for telemetry recovery and S/C maintenance operations.









  • Could NASA Get To Pluto Faster? Space Expert Says Yes - By Thinking Nuclear
  • NASA plans to send new robot to Jupiter
  • Los Alamos Hopes To Lead New Era Of Nuclear Space Tranportion With Jovian Mission
  • Boeing Selects Leader for Nuclear Space Systems Program

  • Genesis Findings Solve Apollo Lunar Soil Mystery
  • Indian Lunar Mission Likely To Take Off 2007 Year End
  • China And Russia Discuss Lunar Project
  • Escaping Gasses From Moon Expose Fresh Surface

  • NASA Completes Milestone Review Of Next Human Spacecraft System
  • First Research Confirms That Eating Slowly Inhibits Appetite
  • India's First Cosmonaut Ready To Go To Space Again
  • SpaceEdutainment Theme Park Investor Road Show Blasts Off With KPMG Plan

  • Making Old Horizons New
  • Scientist Who Found Tenth Planet Discusses The Downgrading Of Pluto
  • New Horizons Spacecraft Snaps Approach Image of the Giant Planet
  • Does The Atmosphere Of Pluto Go Through The Fast-Freeze

  • Jovian Junior Red Spot Growing Stronger
  • Exploring Europa By Way Of The Arctic
  • Junior Spot Zips Past Great Red Spot On Jupiter
  • Gemini Captures Close Encounter Of Two Jupiter Red Spots

  • Vesper Could Explore Earth's Fiery Twin
  • Venus Express Marks One Year In Orbit
  • Complex Meteorology At Venus
  • Flying Over The Cloudy World

  • NASA Sees Into The Eye Of A Monster Storm On Saturn
  • NASA Study Shows Titan And Early Earth Atmospheres Are Similar
  • The Lone Pale Blue Dot As Seen By Cassini
  • Astronomer Describes An Eerily Beautiful Sight As Cassini Spys Faint New Rings

  • China Broadcasting Satellite SinoSat-2 Fails Just 10 Days After Launch
  • Raytheon Tech Can Help NASA Track Astronauts, Put Robots On Moon
  • Planck Instruments Ready For Integration
  • Red Storm Upgrade Lifts Sandia Supercomputer

  • The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2006 - SpaceDaily.AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA PortalReports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additionalcopyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement