PhobosGrunt

Phobos-Grunt was a Russian robotic space mission intended to explore Mars by visiting its moon Phobos, collect samples, and return them to Earth. The project represented a dual objective: to deploy a Phobos lander capable of acquiring soil from Phobos and bringing it back, and to carry the Chinese Mars orbiter Yinghuo-1 as a secondary payload to Mars if the mission progressed as planned. It was conducted by Roscosmos with international cooperation from China.

The probe was launched from Baikonur on 8 November 2011. After reaching Earth orbit, the mission relied on the Fregat upper stage to perform a translunar/trans-Mars injection burn. A failure during the initial ignition prevented the spacecraft from escaping Earth orbit, leaving Phobos-Grunt in a low Earth orbit. Ground control attempted to re-establish contact and to reattempt propulsion, but the spacecraft never departed for Mars. The Yinghuo-1 orbiter, carried as a secondary payload, did not separate and was lost along with the main mission.

Phobos-Grunt and any accompanying debris re-entered Earth's atmosphere in January 2012, with most fragments burning up over the southern Pacific Ocean. No data were returned from Phobos-Grunt, and no Phobos samples were collected or returned to Earth. The mission highlighted the technical and logistical difficulties of complex, multi-national sample-return missions and raised considerations regarding space debris and planetary protection.