Russia began exploring Mars's satellites

Russia launched a spacecraft with the mission of exploring the Phobos satellite of Mars on November 8. This is the first time Russia has conducted a mission to explore beyond Earth's orbit since the mid-1990s.

>>>Video: Successfully launched the Phobos-Grunt probe

The unmanned probe ship Phobos-Grunt was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, on 20 November (GMT) on November 8. Phobos-Grunt's main task is to take physical samples from Mars's Phobos satellite and bring them back to Earth in 2014. These physical samples could help scientists better understand the early period. Mars and Solar System formation.

The Phobos-Grunt probe leaves the launch pad at Baikonur space airport (Kazakhstan).

With this $ 163 million project, Russia has officially returned to the US race in the field of exploring deep locations in the universe after more than a decade of delay due to lack of funding and many failed launches.

Russia launched a probe on Mars Phobos 1 and Phobos in July 1988, but these two missions failed. In 1996, Russia continued to launch the Mars 96 probe, but the ship fell into the Pacific Ocean immediately after leaving the launch pad.

'The mission to discover Phobos satellites can help Russia regain credibility,' said Roald Sagdeev, former director of the Russian Space Research Institute (IKI). ' This is the first step for Russia to carry out its larger international missions.'

Under the plan, the unmanned probe Phobos-Grunt will fly around Mars's orbit in the fall of 2012. A month later, it will drop the device to collect material samples to the surface of Phobos - a guard Potato shape is 27km long.

In this mission, the Phobos-Grunt also carries a variety of bacteria to test how they live in their long journey.