Russia will launch ships on Mars's satellites

The director of the Russian Federal Space Agency yesterday announced that the country will launch unmanned spacecraft on Mars's Phobos satellite next year.

Mars and its Phobos satellite. (Photo: Shatters)

Xinhua quoted Anatoly Perminov, director of the Russian Federal Space Agency, saying that the Phobos-Grunt will arrive at Phobos satellite to sample soil and rock and return to Earth.

Meanwhile, the Itar-Tass news agency, the first Chinese Mars satellite named YH-1, will also be brought along by the Phobos Grunt. After arriving in Phobos, the ship will drop YH-1 on Mars orbit so it flies around the red planet. YH-1 will help Chinese scientists study many problems on Mars, such as the mechanism of evaporation of water on the surface.

In addition the Russian spacecraft also carries a variety of seeds and some types of bacteria, fungi, fish, crustaceans, flies to carry out scientific experiments.

Russia plans to launch Phobos Grunt in 2009, but the plan is postponed due to technical reasons. The cruise can take about 330 days.

Mars has two satellites, Phobos and Deimos, of which Phobos is close to Mars and is larger than the other satellite.