Yinghou-1
(Lighting from Firefly-1)
China's First Generation Mars Probe
China's first interplanetary probe will fly piggyback on Russia’s fifth generation Mars probe Phobos-Grunt that is expected to be launched in October 2009 as a part of an international Mars exploration effort with China providing a piggyback sub satellite Yinghou-1 to be released in Mars orbit after a 10 month journet to Mars orbit. The 1.5 billion Ruble ($64.4 million) Phobos-Grunt spacecraft built by the veteran mars spacecraft design bureau Lavochkin Research and Production Association is different from its Mars -96 predecessor and is designed to be launched on the Zenit-SL3B booster of the Ukraine. It was originally designed to be launched by the Soyuz-2/Fregat booster but with the addition of the Chinese piggyback sub satellite Yinghou-1 it was switched to the Zenit-3SLB for launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.
The 75 cm long by 75 cm wide and 60 cm high 115 kilograms two year design life Yinghou-1 Chinese probe will conduct solar wind studies as well as magnetic fields and general mission environment studies. The spacecraft will carry two three panel solar arrays for power production but will be electrically powered by the Phobos-Grunt spacecraft while in transit to mars and it has a limited imaging capability.
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