Fobos-Grunt

Fobos-Grunt

Model of Fobos-Grunt spacecraft at the 2011 Paris Air Show
Names	Phobos-Grunt Фобос-Грунт Phobos-Ground
Mission type	Phobos lander Sample return
Operator	Roscosmos
COSPAR ID	2011-065A
SATCAT no.	37872
Mission duration	3 years (planned) Failed in Earth orbit
Spacecraft properties
Manufacturer	Lavochkin, Russian Space Research Institute
Launch mass	13,505 kg (29,773 lb) [1]
Dry mass	2,300 kg (5,100 lb)
Power	1 kW (main orbiter/lander) + 300 W (Earth return vehicle) [2]
Start of mission
Launch date	8 November 2011, 20:16:02 UTC
Rocket	Zenit-2SB41
Launch site	Baikonur Cosmodrome, Site 45/1
Contractor	Yuzhmash
Entered service	Failed on orbit
End of mission
Last contact	24 November 2011
Decay date	15 January 2012, 17:46 UTC [3]
Orbital parameters
Reference system	Geocentric orbit[3]
Regime	Low Earth orbit
Perigee altitude	207 km (129 mi)
Apogee altitude	342 km (213 mi)
Inclination	51.43°
Period	90.0 minutes
Instruments GAP Soil molecular composition analysis MDGF Gamma-ray spectrometer MAIN Neutron spectrometer Lazma Mass spectrometer flight time MANAGA Mass spectrometer THERMOFOB Thermic probe RLR Radar Seismo-1 Seismometer MIMOS Mössbauer spectrometer METEOR-F Micrometeoroids detector DIAMOND Dust detector FPMS Plasma analysis AOST Fourier-transform infrared spectrometer TIMM-2 Solar occultation spectrometer MicrOmega Spectral microscope TSNG Cameras
Russian Mars programme ← Mars 96 Mars-Grunt →

Fobos-Grunt or Phobos-Grunt (Russian: Фобос-Грунт, where грунт refers to the ground in the narrow geological meaning of any type of soil or rock exposed on the surface) was an attempted Russian sample return mission to Phobos, one of the moons of Mars. Fobos-Grunt also carried the Chinese Mars orbiter Yinghuo-1 and the tiny Living Interplanetary Flight Experiment funded by the Planetary Society.^[4][5]

It was launched on 8 November 2011, at 20:16 UTC, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, but subsequent rocket burns intended to set the craft on a course for Mars failed, leaving it stranded in low Earth orbit.^[6][7] Efforts to reactivate the craft were unsuccessful, and it fell back to Earth in an uncontrolled re-entry on 15 January 2012, over the Pacific Ocean, west of Chile.^[8][9][10] The return vehicle was to have returned to Earth in August 2014, carrying up to 200 g (7.1 oz) of soil from Phobos.

Funded by the Russian Federal Space Agency and developed by Lavochkin and the Russian Space Research Institute, Fobos-Grunt was the first Russian-led interplanetary mission since the failed Mars 96. The last successful interplanetary missions were the Soviet Vega 2 in 1985–1986, and the partially successful Phobos 2 in 1988–1989.^[11] Fobos-Grunt was designed to become the first spacecraft to return a macroscopic sample from an extraterrestrial body since Luna 24 in 1976.^[12]