As far as I understand, they will launch Phobos-Grunt on a Zenit 2M/Fregat, which is upgraded Zenit 2. According to Wikipedia, 6 out of total 37 Zenit 2 launches were failures (the single Zenit 2M launch to date was successful). Not very impressive.

EDIT: Doug was faster. But I must point out that the most recent Zenit failures happened with Zenit 3SL (I think). Roscosmos doesn't use SeaLauch services.
OT: I myself trust only one Russian launcher: Soyuz. I hope Angara will change that.

To be entirely honest, I don't know if Zenit is more reliable than Proton. Admittedly there have been 5 successful launches since the Jan07 failure, but Proton was itself successful on 6 occasions between its failures in Sep07 and Mar08.

Every launch is a numbers game (unless the vehicle in question is a Delta 2, or maybe a Cosmos 3M) and there are no guarantees.

Actually in the last 12 months we have 6 Proton launches + 2 failures...

Fregat is a good stage, I don't expect an upper stage malfunction. It all depends on the performance of the first two stages.

mps: Yeah, not very impressive.

This is one good aspect of rising fuel prices- Russia has loads of petro-rubles flowing into planetary spaceflight, enough to cover any cost overruns in getting concepts from powerpoint to the launch pad. Now if only we could persuade the Gulf states that planetary exploration is more important for national prestige than building huge towers...

Yes, but in the same time U.S. and Europe will have less bucks for UMSF

An update on laspace.ru (Using the Google translator, bad English):

In case you forgot, the ill-fated Phobos 1 was launched exactly 20 years ago on 7 July 1988 http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraftD...do?id=1988-058A

Hello to everyone,

I am new to this mailing list.

I just wanted to point out the Phobos-Grunt mission is similar to the original Phobos project 20 years ago in one other
significant way: the quality of the launch window.

This is usually quantified by the "hyperbolic velocity" at departure and arrival, in other words
the amount of energy (or fuel) that the spacecraft needs to expend in order to slip into the
correct trajectory for the Earth-Mars portion of the trip, and the energy at arrival needed
to break into orbit around Mars when it gets there. Trajectory designers usually look
for the smallest hyperbolic velocities possible in order to maximise the mass of the spacecraft.

For Phobos 2 those were about 3.5 km/sec at departure from Earth on 12/07/1988 and 2.6 km/sec for arrival at Mars
at 29/01/2989. For Phobos-Grunt, a departure on 05/10/2009 and arrival at 29/08/2010 gives hyp. velocities
of 3.3 km/sec and 2.5 km/sec, quite similar to those of Phobos 2.

One other thing: the Phobos 2 trajectory allowed for an almost equatorial arrival at Mars. In other words, the spacecraft
could (and did) settle into the equatorial plane of Mars directly from its hyperbolic arrival trajectory. This is useful
(as in "fuel-saving") if you are trying to rendezvous with a satellite in an equatorial orbit, such as Phobos and is not
necessarily true for *every* launch opportunity to Mars. It is true for the 2009 Phobos-Grunt window however.

Hopefully the above will be of some use.

Tolis.

Here's an article about Phobos-Grunt:
Russia to study Martian moons again
Launch is planned for October 2009.

The latest issue of Air & Space magazine has a good article about Phobos Grunt

Can somebody explain this line in the article:

Why is Phobos easier to access than Deimos?

I think it's simply because it's nearest to Mars.

My toughts are:

• Phobos have much less dust and debris on its surface than Deimos because of its close orbit to Mars where the planet's gravity would tend to pull debris off the moon. This is a important factor for a easier landing and work with the less dusty surface.
• Both moons have low escape velocities, Phobos is only 12 m/sec and Deimos is even lower. Better with Phobos than Deimos because Phobos will let the spacecraft to have easier landing and surface control during the sampling due to its little greater gravity.
• The orbit velocity of Phobos is higher than Deimos: Phobos orbits Mars with a period of 7.3 hours, less than a Martian day and Deimos orbits Mars in 30.3 hours. Hence, when the spacecraft Phobos-Grunt approaches to Mars, it will need to carry less carburant to reduce the speed. Most Mars' orbiters loop around Mars within 12 hours.

Hope that others would contribute a much better reasons.

From Lavochkin's website translated by Babelfish:

29.07.2008
Delegation from C.P.R. (Chinese Peoples' Republic) in [FGUP] “[NPO] of the name Of [s].[A].[Lavochkina]”

Last week [FGUP] “[NPO] of the name Of [s].[A].[Lavochkina]” visited delegation from C.P.R. headed by the leader of the Chinese national space administration Of [sun] [Layyanem]. Encounter took place with the participation of the representatives of federal Space Agency, specialists [NPO] [im]. Of [s].[A].[Lavochkina], RNII (Scientific Research Institute of Jet Propulsion) KP, OKB MEI.

In the course of encounter the prospects of the collaboration of two states in the peaceful mastery of outer space were discussed: outer space exploration in the scientific and technical spheres. Among the key items of collaboration - study of Mars and its satellite of Phoebus. In the composition of automatic spacecraft “Phoebus- ground”, of created in [NPO] [im]. [S].[A].[Lavochkina], to Mars will leave Chinese micro-satellite.

Design project leader and Director-General OF [FGUP] “[NPO] [im]. Of [s].[A].[Lavochkina]” Of [g].[M].[Polishchuk] acquainted guests with the basic directions of the activity of enterprise and designated the key moments of the participation of Chinese side in the project “Phoebus- ground”.

The visit of the new shop, where assembling and testing the automatic automatic spacecraft of scientific designation occurs caused great interest in participants in the encounter. The special attention of gathering was given to the section of assembling KA “Phoebus- ground”. The questions, which are concerned its construction and tests, answered the first deputy chief of OKB, chief designer on the theme Of [m].[B].[Martynov].

International collaboration in the peaceful mastery of space contributes to scientific and technical progress, modernization of rocket-space technology and to development of contemporary civilization as a whole.

Interesting picture - looks very confrontational - bear guys lined up on one side, dragon guys lined up
on the other. Nice wall of vegetation between them. I'd suggest you don't make rapid technical
progress this way.

An image of the Phobos Grunt mission profile
And some future (futuristic) Lavochkin projects, including Mars Grunt, Luna Glob, Venera D etc.

Some info about the engine hardware on Fobos Grunt (page 14)

There's some new information on Phobos from Mars Express here:

http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMB82TG7MF_index_0.html


This includes an image showing the Phobos-Grunt landing site candidates. Beware of the text on the landing site link, though - it says "the Russian Federal Space Agency is now considering to move the landing location slightly to the north of the previous one, to a safer area located between 7°-21°S and 214°-233°W." It's actually 7 to 21 north, not south. This also puts their landing sites in the area seen in the highest resolution Viking images, at roughly 20 north, 235 west.

I've attached the Viking image - a mosaic of two frames, blurred a bit by motion, with the sites added as white dots. The Viking images are still the best for this area.

Phil

Click to view attachment

More very useful information on Phobos-Grunt landing sites in an abstract by Sasha Basilevsky at the Vernadsky-Brown Microsymposium, held a couple of weeks ago in Moscow:

http://www.planetology.ru/browsefiles.php

(I gave the link to the abstract page, not just Sasha's abstract, so you can see the others - check out the really good one on Lunokhod-2)

Watch out for the map of PG landing sites, though - it shows the old ones.

Phil

Abstract conclusion : All Lunokhod 2 panoramas were digitized.
I hope that soon we will take a virtual tour inside the Le Monnier crater.

I wonder when (if?) Phobos-Grunt will get a delay announcement.

Otherwise, F-G will be th only Mars mission of 2009...

Not yet I have heard of this. This is not only a Russian project but too of China. China will request assistance from Russia to launch the Yinghuo-1 Chinese-made Mars probe. Hence Phobos-Grunt and Yinghuo-1 will travel together to Mars.

From economics perspective, I suspect that Russia will have more trouble in financing the project since Russia depends upon much of oil earnings. China will assist the financial to Russia to accomplish the joint mission if Russia request for help.

China To Launch Probe to Mars With Russian Help in 2009

Hope that this would be a space streaming news during 2009.

According to the most recent RKA news release (dated 29 october, in russian) development is proceeding is schedule

According to insiders, Phobos-Grunt will also be delayed by 2 years. That's not a financial, but rather engineering issues with spacecraft bus "Navigator", first of its kind.

According to this week's issue of French "Air et Cosmos" it seems that the 2009 launch window is no longer achievable and the mission will be delayed to 2011.
For any other member who can read French: go find a copy of Air and Cosmos because this issue (no 2151, 12 december) has a very good 2-page article on Lavochkin's lunar plans!

Doubts doubts doubts...
I was wondering about the latest F-G/YH-1 stack configuration, which look something like this
assuming that a mission profile "à la Fobos" is used, the Fregat stage at bottom places the stack into Mars orbit and then circularizes the orbit to one close to that of Phobos. After this, F-G and YH-1 are released. Does this mean that YH-1 will not enter the announced 800 x 80,000 km orbit but will instead enter a circular one 6000 km above the planet?
I see no way YH-1 can be released from this stack just after orbit insertion as initially announced, unless the Fregat is used only to enter Mars orbit and the circularization is carried out by F-G onboard engine...
any idea? suggestions?
Of course, this article suggests that YH-1 will be placed in an eccentric orbit, as I can see no way a circular orbit can have 8.8 hours eclipses.
There is something wrong with either the mission profile or the stack images, or the article...

It seems to me that Fregat is used only to leave Earth orbit, MOI and following maneuvers are handled by the s/c itself: youtube video
Of course, this is quite old video and doesn't feature Yinghuo-1, so it all could have changed by now.

That's true, but in this case the position of YH-1 would interfere with the firing of the engine at MOI

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.

This implies YH-1 would have to separate before MOI or would have to be placed at a different location.

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

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.

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.

I stand fully corrected!

Thanks. It all makes sense now

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

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

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

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

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)

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).

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.

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!

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.

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.

FULL INLINE QUOTE REMOVED - ADMIN

Ok, but its interesting to note that its scarcely reported in Western mainstream media - in fact I am pretty certain Phobos-Grunt sample-return has not been reported on the BBC transmitted media (non internet) - so it could be news, at least for some. I will also give the Russians credit for not giving up on a Mars mission, even after setbacks and failures, unlike others. Phobos return was also put forward as a UK mission at one stage.

The fact is, if they pull this off, it will be a bit of a coup..

http://www.marsdaily.com/reports/China-Rus...akeoff_999.html

Phobos-Grunt scheduled to take off in October.

There is some more information about the Chinese subsatellite:



Also, there's some information that Chang'e 2 may launch this year. (However, after the almost total silence surrounding Chang-e 1 I already lost interest in this yet another orbiter - at least till Chang-e lander lands).

http://www.vesti.ru/doc.html?id=244836&cid=10

Team reports they are on schedule and they are still going to launch this year.

It's confirmed that Phobos-Grunt will carry microorganisms.

Interesting video. There are nice shots of the probe, its Fregat stage and of the YH-1 "cage". Note also that the video confirms that Zenith will be used as a launcher instead of Soyuz-Fregat.
The two men interviewed are Lavochkin's Georgi Polischuk and IKI's Lev Zelenyi. The man playing with Phobos' model is not identified.

This has to be one of the most daring missions in the history of deep space exploration. And all for what, half the price of the one season Phoenix? Maybe there is something to be said for faster better cheaper, that is if it works. Which it probably wont