Russia
plans to send up a space exploration capsule to analyse the surface of Mars
and collect test samples from one of the red planet's moons in 2009, Russia's
space agency said Friday.
The first stage of the project "will be bringing back
to Earth samples of soil from its natural satellite planet Phobos for detailed
research in laboratory conditions," the statement said.
The Phobos tests
could "answer or come close to answering a wide spectrum of scientific questions
on the physics of the solar system," it added. The European Space Agency (ESA)
is planning a 700-million-euro (900-million-dollar) mission to Mars called
ExoMars that is to launch in 2011.
In other news,
here's a photo of the International Space Station as seen from Earth.
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