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Yinghou-1 (Lighting from Firefly-1) Mars Probe

YingHuo-1 was a China-Russia JointMars exploration program. CSSAR initiated this program and is in charge ofthe payload system and data application system. YingHuo-1 was China'sfirst planetary exploration program and was intended to play an important role in the development of deep space exploration by China.

Russia's Lavochkin Research and Production Association signed a cooperation contract, based on an agreement between the Chinese and Russian governments, with China Great Wall Industry Corp in 2007. "The collaboration with Russia would enhance China's ability in deep space exploration, improve spacecraft design and development, and promote planetary exploration," said an official with the corp, a subsidiary of the China Aerospace Science & Technology Corp.

China's first interplanetary probe flew piggyback on Russia’s fifth generation Mars probe Phobos-Grunt that was 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 was different from its Mars -96 predecessor and was 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 had a limited imaging capability.

Yinghuo-1 was to work in orbit with Phobos-Grunt for more than 12 months in collecting data on the Martian atmosphere. Both spacecraft would travel for more than 10 months before entering Martian orbit. During the trip, Yinghuo-1's power supply, communications and temperature gauge would be controlled from the Russian craft. Both craft would orbit the planet three times before decoupling. The 106-kg Yinghuo-1 will circle Mars in an elliptical orbit, while Phobos-Grunt will actually land on Phobos, one of the two Martian moons, and bring back soil samples to Earth.

Yinghuo-1, with a two-year lifespan, also had its own scientific goals. These include analyzing the planet's magnetic environment and ionosphere (upper atmosphere), taking images of topographical features and studying gravity fields on the Martian equator. Pang Zhihao, deputy editor-in-chief of the monthly publication, Space International, said China's focus on the planet's upper atmosphere is significant. Twenty detectors have explored parts of Mars, but most of them have looked for traces of life or water or places suitable for setting up colonies, he said. But studying the upper atmosphere is also vital if humans are to live on the planet, he said.

The mission was set for October 2009, but later postponed to 2011 year to enhance the reliability of the project. Only the United States, the former Soviet Union and the European Union have succeeded in landing probes on Mars. Five were in operation, four belong to the US and one belongs to the EU. At least 21 probes sent to the planet have failed. The Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology under the CASC, which designed Yinghuo-1 in 23 months, said that the satellite posed a major technological challenge as the furthest space destination for China before had been the moon. The moon's average distance from Earth is about 384,000 km. The distance between Mars and Earth, depending on orbits, ranges from approximately 55 million km to about 350 million km.

The first Chinese spacecraft to explore Mars was launched 09 November 2011. Yinghuo-1 went into orbit with the Russian spacecraft, the Fobos-Grunt. However, according to Russia's space agency, the Mars probe failed to reach its intended orbit. The abnormality occurred after the Phobos-Grunt probe had separated from the Zenit-2SB launch vehicle, which blasted off from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan at 2016 GMT. The spacecraft was supposed to use its own booster to reach the designated flying orbit, but failed to do so. Vladimir Popovkin, head of Russia's space agency Roscosmos, was quoted as saying that the mission control lost contact with the probe after the separation. "Now we know its coordinates and we found out that the (probe's) engine failed to start," he added.