Fobos-Grunt

Fobos-Grunt^[2] (also spelled Phobos-Grunt, also called Phobos Sample Return Mission^[3]) was an unmanned Russian spacecraft. It was an attempted sample return mission to Phobos, a moon of the planet Mars.^[3][4][5] Scientists intended Phobos-Grunt to orbit and study Mars. It was meant to look at Mars' atmosphere and dust storms, plasma and radiation. Then, Phobos-Grunt should have landed on Phobos and returned a 200 g^[4][5] soil sample to Earth.^[3][4][5][6]

Fobos-Grunt

A model of Fobos-Grunt presented during CeBIT 2011
Mission type	Phobos lander Sample return
Operator	Roskosmos
COSPAR ID	2011-065A
SATCAT no.	37872
Mission duration	Planned: 3 years Final: failed at launch
Spacecraft properties
Manufacturer	Lavochkin, Russian Space Research Institute
Launch mass	13,505 kg (29,773 lb) with fuel
Dry mass	2,300 kg (5,100 lb)
Power	1000 W (main orbiter/lander) + 300 W (Earth return vehicle)[1]
Start of mission
Launch date	8 November 2011, 20:16 (2011-11-08UTC20:16Z) UTC
Rocket	Zenit-2SB
Launch site	Baikonur 45/1
End of mission
Decay date	15 January 2012 (2012-01-16)
Orbital parameters
Reference system	Geocentric
Regime	Low Earth
Perigee	112 kilometres (70 mi)
Apogee	125 kilometres (78 mi)
Inclination	51.4°
Epoch	15 January 2012

The spacecraft was the first Russian interplanetary mission since Mars 96.^[5] It was launched on 8 November 2011 (UTC), aboard a Zenit rocket, at Baikonur Cosmodrome.^[3] It was sent with the Chinese spacecraft Yinghuo-1^[3][5] and with the Living Interplanetary Flight Experiment.^[3]

The name Phobos-Grunt (Russian: Фобос-Грунт) is Russian for Phobos-Soil.^[5]