[meteorite-list] Russian Phobos Mission: Phobos-Grunt

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon Aug 21 11:55:04 2006
Message-ID: <200608211552.IAA14124_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.mosnews.com/column/2006/08/21/mission2mars.shtml

Russian General to Search Life on Mars' Moon Phobos
Dario Thuburn
Agence France-Presse
August 21, 2006

In an anonymous compound next to a suburban Moscow shopping centre a
retired Russian army general is planning his next galactic conquest.
Georgy Polishchuk, head of the Lavochkin Association, is preparing an
unmanned mission to a moon of Mars that will search for signs of life on
the red planet and try to unlock the universe's secrets.

"We have to find life and whether it can be sustained," Polishchuk said,
his eyes glinting as his pen drew out the planned route during an
interview this month at the installation.

The theory that there may be life on Mars, bolstered by signs that there
has been or still is water on the planet, has fascinated scientists and
space enthusiasts around the world for more than a century.

The three-year mission is the cornerstone of Russia's bid to reclaim a
leading role in robotic planetary exploration after the long lull that
followed the glory days of Soviet space exploration.

President George W. Bush unveiled an ambitious program in 2004 to return
to the Moon and launch a manned mission to Mars.

Such missions cost "several billion dollars," Polishchuk said. The
program will be funded 75 percent by the Russian state and 25 percent by
selling off spare room on board to other space agencies.

The probe, called Phobos-Grunt, will set off in October 2009 from the
Baikonur cosmodrome on a Soyuz-2 rocket for Phobos, one of Mars' two
tiny moons, to collect soil samples and bring them back to Earth.

Polishchuk's three-year mission also aims to study the origins of Mars'
moons and the atmosphere around the red planet, as well as monitor
seasonal variations on the surface of Mars.

Phobos-Grunt, the word "grunt" in Russian means "soil," resembles a
giant spider and is made up of several globes with an attached drilling
device. It weighs a total of around eight tons.

"It's a very difficult mission. A very difficult planet," said
Polishchuk, 65, referring to the 2003 failure of Beagle 2, a European
lander, and an unsuccessful Russian launch for the red planet in 1996.

Two key dates in the history of the Cold War space race tend to
overshadow the achievements of the Lavochkin Association: 1961, when the
Soviet Union's Yury Gagarin became the first man in space, and 1969,
when Neil Armstrong of the United States became the first person to set
foot on the Moon.

But the association has a proud history of important firsts: on December
2, 1971, Mars-3, a mushroom-shaped object carrying the Soviet
hammer-and-sickle emblem, became the first probe to reach the surface of
Mars.

The Luna-9 was the first to make a soft landing on the Moon in 1966 and
the Venera-8 was the first apparatus to land on the surface of Venus in
1972.

Once the pride of the Soviet space program and a key missile
manufacturer, the association has gone through hard times since the
collapse of the Soviet Union, like much of Russia's state sector.

It has not however experienced the massive "brain drain" that has struck
other Russian technology firms, said Polishchuk.

"We kept our brains... We have lost individuals, maybe dozens of
people," said Polishchuk, who is also a veteran space researcher.

"It's what I call Lavochkin patriotism. We have generations of people
working here," the general said.

The average salary at the enterprise is around 15,000 rubles (560
dollars, 430 euros) per month - cashiers starting out at the Swedish
furniture store IKEA across the road earn almost as much - 12,000 rubles.

But funding problems at the Lavochkin Association are being resolved
largely due to renewed state help, as well as projects with other
countries such as Canada, China, France, Italy and even the United States.

The fierce Cold War-era competition for new frontiers in space, the
general said, has given way to broad international cooperation in the
interests of scientific discovery.

"China and India compete for the Moon of course, they want to join the
moon club," Polishchuk said with a wry smile. "We've already been there.
We've already seen it."
Received on Mon 21 Aug 2006 11:52:19 AM PDT