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November 9, 2011 03:48 am EDT

Russian and Chinese satellites going to Martian moon, plan to bring back some of the Red Planet

Russia just finished its Mars500 simulation, proving that man can handle the arduous task of traveling to and from the Red Planet -- or at least it proved man can live in a confined space for 520 days with dodgy internet. However, Moscow needs to know a bit more about Mars itself before shooting citizens to our planetary neighbor, so it's sending a satellite to collect soil samples from one of its moons. The Russian satellite, named Phobos-Grunt, launched earlier today with the Chinese satellite Yinhuo-1 onboard as well. Both are bound for the Martian moon Phobos and are scheduled to arrive in September of 2012, whereupon Yinghuo-1 will be dispatched into orbit around Mars and Phobos-Grunt will begin maneuvering for its final descent onto the moon's surface. After landing, a robotic arm will examine some extra-terrestrial soil on site and gather 200 grams more to fire back to terra, where it's scheduled to touch down in Kazakhstan by August of 2014. If humans can get some Martian dirt back to Earth without incident, shouldn't be hard to do the same thing with a man, right?

Russian and Chinese satellites going to Martian moon, plan to bring back some of the Red Planet originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 Nov 2011 22:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Original Link: http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/08/russian-and-chinese-satellites-going-to-martian-moon-plan-to-br/

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