Russia will launch ships to collect specimens from the moon Mars

Russia will make its second attempt to bring back dust samples from Phobos, one of Mars's two moons, after its first failed attempt in November 2011 with its spacecraft falling. RIA Novosti leads a leading scientist on October 15.

Russia's next attempt to collect material from Mars's largest moon is expected to take place between 2020-2022, Lev Zelyony - Director of the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said in a press conference.

Phobos natural satellite of Mars - (Photo: ESA)

He said the plan, nicknamed "Boomerang" , was "still important" and claimed that samples taken from Phobos could lead to new discoveries to answer questions about the birth of the system. Sun.

Phobos, named after the Greek mythology, means "fear", believed to be an asteroid captured by Mars in its orbit, may contain substances that existed from time to time. The primitive created the solar system, although the origin of Phobos is still a mystery.

In November 2011, Russia carried out a $ 165 million mission to bring the Phobos-Grunt to Mars moon to collect specimens but soon failed.

The propulsion unit caused the 13.5-ton Phobos-Grunt ship, including 7.5 tons of toxic fuel, could not fly farther and was trapped in Earth orbit at a height of more than 345 km for the entire month. , and then fell to the Pacific on January 16, 2012.

According to the US Department of Aeronautics and Space (NASA), Russia had a total of 17 failed attempts to study Mars since 1960. Failure of the launch of the Phobos-Grunt was the failure of the Mars-96 vessel. launch pad during launch in 1996.