Scientists in Russia, Canada and the U.S. are preparing missions to Phobos.
Russian scientists have been trying to send a spacecraft to Phobos for years.
Samples from Phobos could help answer mysteries about the moon's origin and composition.
Phobos is made of dark material that does not reflect much light. This makes scientists suspect it has a chemical composition similar to that of carbonaceous chondrite asteroids.
A sample would allow scientists to measure the chemical isotopes, which could then be compared to the isotopic signatures of Martian meteorites that have landed on Earth to see how similar Phobos is to the planet it orbits.
The question of whether Phobos contains water ice could be answered.
One attraction Phobos holds over Mars is that it costs much less money to go there. Phobos has no atmosphere to contend with, and much lower gravity.
The launch of Phobos-Grunt was scheduled to take place this October, but it now seems likely the launch date will be pushed back to 2011 at the earliest. Whenever the mission does launch, it will take 3 years for the lander to reach the small moon, touch down on its surface, and then return its sample to Earth.
The Russians are not the only ones who dream of Phobos. Another mission headed by Optech Inc. and the Mars Institute, and funded as a concept study by the Canadian Space Agency, is called PRIME, for "Phobos Reconnaissance and International Mars Exploration." The PRIME mission would be composed of an orbiter and lander, and each would carry 4 instruments designed to study various aspects of Phobos's geology. Yet another mission concept, the Phobos-Deimos Sample Return Mission (SRM), is being studied by NASA's Glenn Research Center. This mission would rely on low-cost electric propulsion to land on Phobos and Deimos and bring back samples from the two moons.
At present, neither PRIME nor the Phobos-Deimos SRM has a projected launch date.
(above is an editted version of the source page)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30498759/
Last edited on Fri May 1st, 2009 10:29 pm by Shields
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