China and Russia Ink Milestone Pact to Explore Mars
MOSCOW, Russia, April 2, 2007 - Satnews Daily - China and Russia have signed a milestone space cooperation agreement providing for a joint mission that will send their satellites to orbit and explore Mars and its moon, Phobos, in October 2009.
The agreement was signed during the current state visit to Russia of Chinese President Hu Jintao. China National Space Administration head Sun Laiyan and Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) chief Anatoly Perminov signed the agreement witnessed by Hu and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Chinese officials hailed the agreement as a milestone in the history of space cooperation between both countries since both sides have taken a key step forward to working together on a large space program. Perminov previously revealed that Russia would work closely with China on lunar exploration.
With the agreement, both countries, which have a long history of space cooperation, agreed to a joint unmanned mission to explore Mars and Phobos. A micro-satellite developed by China will be launched to orbit Phobos from the Russian "Phobos Explorer” spacecraft that will land on the Red Planet’s moon.
The launch window for the 11-month voyage to Phobos will be October 2009. After entering Mars' orbit, the Chinese micro-satellite will detach from the Russian spacecraft and probe the space environment around Mars. The Phobos Explorer, which will also carry equipment developed by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, will land on Phobos and return to Earth with soil samples.
Studying material from the Phobos, which many consider a large asteroid captured by Mars’ gravitational field, will give scientists more information on the origins of the solar system and the Earth.
China has begun its ambitious “Chang’e Lunar Exploration Program,” a three-stage project that involves sending a lunar orbiter to the Moon later this year, followed by a soft landing in 2012 and the return of lunar samples in another five years.
