PHOBOS SOIL

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PHOBOS - SOIL
Russian academy of sciences
Russian aviation and space agency

• Phobos Sample Return Mission
• 1. goals, methods of study
• A.Zakharov, zakharov_at_iki.rssi.ru

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Goals of the Mission
PHOBOS - SOIL

• Phobos regolith sample return,
• Phobos in situ study,
• Mars and Phobos remote sensing.
• Mars system science
• Phobos investigation (regolith, origin and
  evolution of the Martian moons),
• Martian environment conditions (dust, plasma,
  radiation),
• Monitoring of the Martian atmosphere and surface
  global dynamics.

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Scientific objections
PHOBOS - SOIL

• study physical and chemical characteristics of
  Phobos regolith and subsurface layers in situ and
  under laboratory conditions - these data can
  provide information on properties of primordial
  matter of the Solar system
• study of the role played by asteroidal impacts in
  the formation of terrestrial planets, in the
  evolution of their atmospheres, crusts, and
  inventories of volotiles
• study of the origin of the Martian satellites and
  their relation to Mars - these data can help in
  our understanding of their evolution and the
  origin of satellite systems near other planets
• search of possible life or paleolife
• study of peculiarities of orbital and proper
  motion of Phobos, what is important for
  understanding their origin, internal structure,
  celestial mechanics applications
• study physical conditions of the Martian
  environment (dust, gas, plasma components) what
  is important to study of treatment processes of
  small body regolith under influence of external
  conditions and creation of engineering model of
  the Martian environment for future Martian
  missions
• Monitoring of dynamic of the Martian atmosphere
  and seasons climate changing.

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Methods of investigation
PHOBOS - SOIL

• 1. Delivery of sample of the matter at the Earth.
  With a returned sample it would be possible to
  address the following topics
• absolute dating, the length of formatting
  interval and the subsequent evolution
• precise identification of primitive material, its
  chemical composition
• origin of Phobos / Deimos and their relation to
  Mars
• search of organic material.
• 2. In-situ study. Measurements on Phoboss
  surface will provide the opportunity to establish
  a ground truth data need for validation and
  interpretation of remote sensing and to do a
  detailed, in situ study of regolith samples,
  specifically their
• elemental and mineral composition, volatile
  content
• microscopic structure, physical and mechanical
  properties of the regolith
• celestial mechanic and fundamental physics
  experiments
• long duration monitoring of Mars.
• 3. Remote sensing Remote sensing of Phobos from
  co-orbiting spacecraft will provide global
  coverage of data related to both the surface and
  internal structure of the satellite, will provide
  an opportunity to relate data returned from the
  landing site to the all Phoboss surface
• global geologic mapping,
• size, shape, mass, bulk density,
• color, albedo, photometric scattering and thermal
  properties,
• mapping of global elemental and mineral
  composition,
• internal structure,
• landing site certification and selection,
• The Martian environment (dust tori, solar wind -
  Phoboss surface interaction).

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PHOBOS - SOIL
MAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MISSION
Launch vehicleSoyuz-2 Launch
date. September 7-29,
2009 Flight duration (to Mars).....
280-350 days Launch date from Phobos13
.07-12 August 2011 Duration of near-Mars
operation time....not more than 365
days Flight duration (from Mars)...29
5-320 days Date of arrival to Earth
.14.05-8 June 2012 Total duration of the
mission.1005 days
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PHOBOS - SOIL
MISSION PROFILE
The Lavochkin / Babakin space association design
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PHOBOS - SOIL
Payload zone
Payload zone
The Lavochkin / Babakin space association design
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PHOBOS - SOIL
SC CONFIGURATION (on the
Phobos surface)
HGA
Return vehicle
Soil sampling device
Solar array
Landing gear
The Lavochkin / Babakin space association design
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Strawman Payload
PHOBOS - SOIL
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Current status
PHOBOS - SOIL

• The PHOBOS-GRUNT project is the only national
  planetary project in the current decade.
• The Lavochkin / Babakin space association is the
  main contractor of the spacecraft. Mass of the
  payload is 50 kg. The project has the resources
  to include additional payload with a mass about
  120 kg. This mass margin could be used for
  including additional element(s) for the
  investigation of Mars (i.e. small station on the
  surface, balloon, penetrators, etc.) or a probe
  for the study of Deimos.
• About 30 proposals for scientific experiments
  have been received for the project from Russian
  scientific teams. The next step is a preselected
  search of proposed experiments for the mission
  from scientific and technical point of view.