Moscow, July 22 (Interfax-AVN) - The Polish Academy of Sciences will make an additional instrument for the Phobos-Grunt automatic interplanetary station for taking soil samples from the Martian moon of Phobos, Lavochkin General Designer and Director Viktor Khartov told Interfax-AVN.
"One reason why the mission has been delayed is the lack of assurance that the two existent robotic arms can take soil samples. Thus, another robotic arm will be added to ensure success of the mission," he said.
Poland will make the third robotic arm, he said. "The Poles helped us. They worked on a soil penetrator under the European space program. The penetrator operates like an air-hammer but without recoil," Davydov said.
Phobos-Grunt will bring Phobos soil samples to the Earth and study Phobos, Mars and space around that planet. The rover will reach the Martian orbit and a probe will land on Phobos in order to take the soil samples. The round trip will take three years.
In addition, the rover will bring China’s small satellite Yinghuo 1 to orbit Mars.
It was planned initially to start the mission in 2009, but it was delayed until 2011. A Russian-Ukrainian Zenit 2 rocket will launch the rover from Baikonur, Kazakhstan.
