Phobos-Grunt Options

[Paolo]

I don't think Fregat can be used to brake at Mars, it's a launch vehicle upper stage similar to a Centaur on Atlas and it's not meant to spend months in deep space.

Actually, it was used for MOi and circularization on Fobos 2

[ugordan]

As far as I see, the present Fregat stage was derived from the Fobos Fregat, yes, but that doesn't necessarily translate into ability to operate in space for months. It may be able to do so, but heritage alone doesn't guarantee it. The propellants are indeed storable, though.

[IM4]

I don't think Fregat can be used to brake at Mars, it's a launch vehicle upper stage similar to a Centaur on Atlas and it's not meant to spend months in deep space

Actually, Paolo is right. Booster will remain attached to FG-YH1 till Mars and will perform some part of MOI and there is nothing special in the booster design in sense of deep space travelling. The main reason for that strange assembling was FG unability to perform MOI with YH1 attached to it. Mass budget was broken so the only solution was to utilize Zenit launcher instead of Soyuz as well as to fly booster together with its payload to Mars.

[ugordan]

I stand fully corrected!

[Paolo]

Booster will remain attached to FG-YH1 till Mars and will perform some part of MOI

Thanks. It all makes sense now

[Paolo]

Details (in Russian) on the status of Fobos-Grunt and in particular its payload is available in the 2008 activity report of IKI.
See http://www.iki.rssi.ru/annual/2008/ and in particular http://www.iki.rssi.ru/annual/2008/R32_OKR_NIR-08.htm
Also includes a section on MetNet and another on Venera-D (also called "Venera-Glob") and on a perspective Mercury lander using Fobos-Grunt technology.
There appears to be nothing on Luna-Glob, however

[Guest_Zvezdichko_*]

... and "Lyulin-Phobos" is not listed amongst the instruments. Weird.

[Guest_Zvezdichko_*]

OK, as I promised, here are the instruments scheduled to fly aboard Phobos-Grunt next year:

Chromato-Mass-Spectrometer - it is a complicated instrument and contains a Chromatograph (collaboration with France and Germany), a Mass-spectrometer, Thermal analyzer ( collaboration with China)

Subcomplex-Scientific-Apparatus - It contains several other instuments and amongst them we have a star tracker, the navigation system ... and ... SURPRISE! A Mossbauer spectrometer (collaboration with Germany)!

Gamma spectrometer, Neutron spectrometer (A gamma and a neutron spectrometer flew aboard Mars-96).

IR-spectrometer

Micrometeoroid detector

Detector of cosmic dust

Plasma experiment (looks like a similar experiment flew aboard Mars-96)

Long-wavelenght planet radar (what is this?)

Thermodetector

[Paolo]

Details of F-G payload can be found in this pdf presentation
Note that the Bulgarian instrument is not mentioned either.

[Guest_Zvezdichko_*]

There's something that disturbs me even more.

(deleted) How is it going to launch this time? Will they switch back to a Soyuz rocket or they will use a Zenit (Proton rocket)

[Paolo]

According to the IKI report, Italian participation also is indoubt, due to financing problems from our space agency (which has just undergone a complete restructuring and refocusing, putting many projects at risk).

[Guest_Zvezdichko_*]

Yeah, TIM and DIAMOND may not fly at all

MetNet also won't fly at all...

Will Yuinghuo-1 fly with Phobos-Grunt? There's nothing mentioned there.

[Guest_Zvezdichko_*]

OK, I got in touch with our local team working on Phobos-Grunt.

Everything is nominal. On the website of IKI are listed only the scientific instruments. However, Lulin-Phobos is an official instrument and it's being developed in collaboration with IMBP-RAN.

So ... everything is nominal and we are on track. And Lulin-Phobos will fly!

[Guest_Zvezdichko_*]

More and more publications started to appear on Russian websites:

http://www.vesti.ru/doc.html?id=238991

Russia intends to obtain samples from Phobos!

It's mentioned that the sample-return capsule has no parachutes (as some of us already know).

The launch of Phobos-Grunt is possible to occur as early as 2009.

[Hungry4info]

Russia intends to obtain samples from Phobos!

As far as I know, that's been a primary objective from the start. It isn't exactly news.

If I understood the article correctly, they claim that the landing of Fobos-Grunt on the surface of Phobos will be the first time a spacecraft has landed on the moon of another planet. (Either Titan isn't a moon, or Saturn's not a planet).

They also claim something about thousands of g's when re-entering the atmosphere of Earth.