Announcing the LPI [Houston] Seminar Schedule for February:
(Note: Effective January 1, 2009, LPI seminars will be held on Thursdays, 3:00 PM in the Lecture Hall, followed by refreshments at 4:00 PM).

Thursday, February 5, 2009
James Oberg, Space Consultant
Russia's Fobos-Grunt sample return mission -- Plans, Context, Prospects

The rumor mill is near-unanimous that the October launch window is impossible. But this isn't 1996 and Mars-96 -- there are real resources available, and experienced people who are reasonably well paid. There's top government support [this may not be a good thing, if the political pressure is greater than the assigned resources]. There's a major diplomatic component -- the Chinese subsatellite. Are there any realistic scenarios in which the launch can occur as scheduled with a reasonable chance of success, or at least partial success? Is a scaled back mission -- lander and subsatellite but no return stage this time -- plausible? Inquiring minds want to know. Non-attributable first- and second-hand stories are solicited.

Professionally and personally, I think we all want this mission to survive and succeed, and after two decades for Russia to resume its rightful role as a major player in interplanetary exploration. Is there any foreign influence on what Moscow would consider a face-saving and feasible scale-down of the project to enhance the benefit to science of a mission this year?

Please pass and post this notice around the Mars community....

jim O
www.jamesoberg.com