Russia Launches Probe to Mars Moon
Wednesday, 09 November 2011, 16:08 IST
Printer Print Email Email
Moscow: Russia has launched a robotic spacecraft to Mars' moon Phobos in an attempt to bring back soil samples from the moon by 2014. The two-stage Zenit-2SB launch vehicle carrying the Phobos-Grunt probe lifted off from the Baikonur space centre in Kazakhstan at 2016 GMT Tuesday. The $163 million spacecraft is carrying an array of 20 instruments designed to gather and transmit data from the vicinity of Mars and from the surface of Phobos. Phobos-Grunt is also carrying several other payloads including a Chinese sub-probe Yinghuo 1 that will separate from Phobos-Grunt and go into orbit around the Red Planet. The Russian craft also carries a capsule with microbes to study how life forms survive long flights through deep space. The probe is expected to reach Mars in September 2012 and drop its lander onto Phobos early in 2013.
Source: IANS
Digital Supply Chain Transformation – Winning the AI/ML Way