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FOBOS-GRUNT... Next month, the Russian Federal Space Agency (or RKA...don’t ask) is planning to launch a spacecraft that will head towards Mars and land on the surface of Phobos, one of its two asteroid moons (the other one being Deimos). If everything goes as planned, Fobos-Grunt will dig up soil from the asteroid and successfully send it back to Earth in 2012...somewhat making this the first sample return mission from Mars. Check out the YouTube clip below for more details. (This video is in Russian; so unless you speak the language, turn the speakers off and you can get the gist of the mission by viewing the imagery.)



Is it just me, or this mission looks a bit complicated...for the Russian Space Agency, that is? The last time RKA tried to send a spacecraft to Mars was in 1996, when the flight ended in failure. A rocket stage onboard the launch vehicle carrying the Mars ’96 probe didn't ignite during the ascent into space, causing Mars ’96 to plummet back to Earth and crash in the Pacific Ocean instead. (Lost with the spacecraft were a "microdot" bearing the names of 100,000 people—including Yours Truly—and a CD-ROM that was a precursor to The Planetary Society’s "Visions of Mars" DVD...which would successfully touch down on the Red Planet 12 years later onboard NASA’s Phoenix lander.)


CNES

As of today, the only thing the RKA has been good at (fortunately) is sending astronauts and cargo up to the International Space Station. Other than that, I can’t recall the last time it tried to send a spacecraft to another world. Well... Here’s hoping Fobos-Grunt makes up for that crappy failure back in 1996. If not, then RKA—unlike NASA after its Mars Odyssey probe flawlessly enterd orbit around the Red Planet in October of 2001—will still be plagued by the "Great Galactic Ghoul" (click here) that has struck all but 19 space missions that succeeded in reaching Mars since 1960. Godspeed, Fobos-Grunt.


NASA / JPL / Malin Space Sciences System / RichTPar