14 DAY TRIAL // As the Russian Federal Space Agency (RosCosmos) is getting ready to launch its Phobos-Grunt mission to Mars on November 9, the organization has released an 11-minute animated video, showing all the stages the new mission will undergo.
The spacecraft, which features an orbiter and a lander, is destined to visit the Martian moon Phobos. The small lander will make its way to the surface, collect a few grams of dust and rock, and then return to Earth.
If successful, this will be only the third successful sample-return mission ever conducted. The data it will produce will be used to determine whether Phobos was produced by an asteroid impact, through coalescing in orbit, or is just a large, captured asteroid.