Posted on by Ken Kremer

Phobos and Jupiter Conjunction in 3 D and Amazing Animation – Blastoff to Martian Moon near

3 D view of the rare Phobos–Jupiter conjunction taken on 1 June 2011 by the High Resolution Stereo Camera on Mars Express. Credits: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum)

Video Caption: Phobos and Jupiter in Conjunction – taken from Mars orbit !
A movie of the 1 June 2011 Phobos–Jupiter conjunction made by combining a sequence of 100 images of the encounter taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera on ESA’s Mars Express orbiter. Mars Express is searching for safe landing zones on Phobos for Russia’s Phobos-Grunt lander blasting off on November 9. Credits: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum)
3 D images of Phobos-Jupiter conjuction below
Update – Phobos-Grunt launch processing photo below

In just 7 days, Russia’s Phobos-Grunt sample return mission will blast off for Mars on November 9 on a daring mission to grab soil samples from the surface of the miniscule martian moon Phobos and return them back to Earth for analysis to give us breathtaking new insights into the formation and evolution of Mars, Phobos and our Solar System.

So, check out the amazing animation and 3 D stereo images of fish-like Phobos and banded Jupiter snapped by Europe’s Mars Express orbiter to get a bird’s eye feel for the battered terrain, inherent risks and outright beauty that’s in store for the Phobos -Grunt spaceship when it arrives in the Red Planet’s vicinity around October 2012. Whip out your red-cyan 3 D glasses – Now !

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ESA’s Mars Express orbiter (MEX) was tasked to help Russia locate suitable and safe landing sites on Phobos’ pockmarked terrain. MEX was built by ESA, the European Space Agency and has been in Mars orbit since 2003.

To capture this impressive series of rare photos of Jupiter and Phobos in conjunction, Mars Express performed a special maneuver to observe an unusual alignment of Jupiter and Phobos on 1 June 2011.

Mars Express High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) snapped a total of 104 images over 68 seconds when the distance from the spacecraft to Phobos was 11,389 km and the distance to Jupiter was 529 million km.

Phobos- Jupiter Conjunction: before, during and after on 1 June 2011 from Mars Express. Credits: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum)

Enjoy the exquisite views of the bands of Jupiter and imagine exploring the deep pockets and mysterious grooves on Phobos – which may be a captured asteroid.

The camera was kept fixed on Jupiter, to ensure it remained static as Phobos passed in front and which afforded an improvement in our knowledge of the orbital position of Phobos.

Phobos in 3 D during flyby of 10 March 2010. Image taken from a distance of 278 km. Russia’s Phobos-Grunt will retrieve rogolith and rock for return to Earth. Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum)

NASA’s twin Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity have also occasionally photographed both of Mars’ moons to further refine their orbital parameters.

NASA’s Curiosity rover remains on track to liftoff for Mars on Nov. 25

Orbital Paths of Phobos and Mars Express. The trajectories of Phobos and Mars Express at the time of the conjunction with Jupiter on 1 June 2011. The letter ‘S’ denotes the South Pole of Mars.
Technicians at Baikonur Cosmodrome prepare Phobos-Grunt for upper stage attachment. Credit: Roscosmos

Read Ken’s continuing features about Phobos-Grunt here:
Russia Fuels Phobos-Grunt and sets Mars Launch for November 9
Phobos-Grunt and Yinghou-1 Arrive at Baikonur Launch Site to tight Mars Deadline
Phobos-Grunt: The Mission Poster
Daring Russian Sample Return mission to Martian Moon Phobos aims for November Liftoff

Posted on by Ken Kremer

Russia Fuels Phobos-Grunt and sets Mars Launch for November 9

The Phobos-Grunt spacecraft is scheduled blastoff on November 9, 2011 from Baikonur Cosmodrome. It will reach Mars orbit in 2012 and eventually land on Phobos and return the first ever soil samples back to Earth in 2014. Credit Roscosmos

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Russia’s Space Agency, Roscosmos, has set November 9 as the launch date for the Phobos-Grunt mission to Mars and its tiny moon Phobos. Roscosmos has officially announced that the audacious mission to retrieve the first ever soil samples from the surface of Phobos will blastoff from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan atop a Zenit-2SB rocket at 00:16 a.m. Moscow time.

Roscosmos said that engineers have finished loading all the propellants into the Phobos-Grunt main propulsion module (cruise stage), Phobos lander and Earth return module at Facility 31 at Baikonur.

Phobos-Grunt is Russia’s first mission to Mars in almost two decades and a prelude to an ambitious program of even more interplanetary Russian science flights.

Russian Phobos-Grunt spacecraft is set to launch to Mars on November 9, 2011.
L-shaped soil sample transfer tube extends from Earth return module ( top -yellow) and solar panel to bottom (left) of lander module. 2 landing legs, communications antenna, sampling arm, propulsion tanks and more are visible. Credit Roscosmos

Technicians also fueled the companion Yinghou-1 mini-satellite, provided by China, that will ride along inside a truss segment between the MDU propulsion module and the Phobos-Grunt lander.

The 12,000 kg Phobos-Grunt interplanetary spacecraft is being moved to an integration and test area at Facility 31 for integration with the departure segments of the Zenit rocket.

The next step is to enclose Phobos-Grunt inside the protective payload fairing and transport it to Facility 42 for mating atop the upper stage of the stacked Zenit-2SB booster rocket.

After about an 11 month journey, the spaceship will enter Mars orbit and spend several months searching for a suitable landing site on Phobos. The goal of the bold mission is to retrieve up to 200 grams of soil and rock from Phobos and return them to Earth in August 2014. The samples will help unlock the mysteries of the origin and evolution of Phobos, Mars and the Solar System.

Scientists hope that bits of Martian soil will be mixed in with Phobos soil.

Phobos-Grunt is equipped with a powerful 50 kg payload of some 20 international science instruments.

The 110 kg Yinghou-1, which translates as Firefly-1, is China’s first spaceship to voyage to Mars. It will be jettisoned by Phobos-Grunt into a separate orbit about Mars. The probe will photograph the Red planet with two cameras and study it with a magnetometer to explore Mars’ magnetic field and science instruments to explore its upper atmosphere.

Earth’s other mission to Mars in 2011, NASA’s Curiosity rover, is set to blast off for Mars on Nov. 25

Labeled Schematic of Phobos-Grunt and Yinghou-1 (YH-1) orbiter

Read Ken’s continuing features about Russia’s Phobos-Grunt Mars mission here::
Phobos-Grunt and Yinghou-1 Arrive at Baikonur Launch Site to tight Mars Deadline
Phobos-Grunt: The Mission Poster
Daring Russian Sample Return mission to Martian Moon Phobos aims for November Liftoff

Read Ken’s continuing features about Curiosity starting here:
Curiosity Buttoned Up for Martian Voyage in Search of Life’s Ingredients
Assembling Curiosity’s Rocket to Mars
Encapsulating Curiosity for Martian Flight Test
Dramatic New NASA Animation Depicts Next Mars Rover in Action

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Israel and Russia Sign Space Cooperation Agreement

Officials from Israel and Russia sign a space cooperation agreement. Credit: Israeli governmental news office.

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The Israeli government has signed an agreement with Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, for cooperation in space for peaceful purposes. Areas where the two countries may work together are exploration and research, remote sensing of Earth from space, materials science, space biology and medicine, satellite navigation technology, and launch services. Israel also has similar agreements with NASA and the ESA.

The two countries have already been cooperating extensively in development of high-tech hardware, and Russia has purchased Israeli-made unmanned drones for its security services.

One of the goals of the Israeli Space Agency is to promote innovative scientific projects based on international collaboration.

“The trend of international cooperation and unification of forces for action in space is more and more dominant and there are now several major multinational projects like the space station, handling problems and global warming climate research, spacecraft operation… physics and solar system exploration,” said Dr. Zvi Kaplan, head of the Israeli Space Agency. “We thank all of the organizations that were active in achieving the agreement, including the Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Justice.”

Those present at the signing included Kaplan, Anatoly Perminov, head of Roscosmos, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Science and Technology Professor Daniel Hershkowitz, Russian Ambassador to Israel, Peter Stganye, and experts from both countries in space.

According to the Israeli science news website Hayadan, Netanyahu said that the combination of Russia’s most developed industrial and Israel’s sophisticated technology will provide for improvements and changes for both countries in space.

“The road was indeed was short, but the desire to work together existed, and last year the two sides accelerated the pace, because of the desire to get started,” said Menachem Grinblum, Director General, Ministry of Science and Technology. “We expect the agreement will be translated into joint action research institutions and industries in both countries.”

Source: Hayadan, with special thanks to editor Avi Blizovsky.