Phobos program
Soviet uncrewed mission to study Mars and its moon Phobos.
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The Phobos program was an uncrewed space mission consisting of two probes launched by the Soviet Union to study Mars and its moon Phobos.
Background
The Soviet Union's Phobos program sent two uncrewed probes to study Mars and its moon Phobos. Launched on a Proton-K rocket, each spacecraft weighed 2600 kilograms, or 6220 with orbital hardware. Phobos 1 launched on July 7, 1988, but failed en route due to a software error.
Phobos 2 launched five days later, reached Mars orbit on January 29, 1989, and collected data on the Martian system, including 37 images of Phobos, before contact was lost before deploying its landers. The 1F spacecraft design replaced earlier types used in Venera and Vega missions. Fourteen nations, including Sweden, France, West Germany, and the United States, cooperated in the program.
Did You Know?
- Phobos 2 returned 37 images of Phobos with a resolution of up to 40 meters before contact was lost.
- The Phobos probes carried instruments including solar x-ray and ultraviolet telescopes, a neutron spectrometer, and the Grunt radar experiment.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Phobos program (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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