BBC Focus Magazine

[M Paul Lloyd]

I hope they succeed as they have had a pretty miserable track record getting stuff to Mars let alone getting it back again.

By Jonathan Amos Science correspondent, BBC News
Russia has launched an audacious bid to scoop up rock and dust samples from the Martian moon Phobos and bring them back to Earth for study.
The dusty debris should provide fresh insights into the origin of the 27km-wide moon that many scientists suspect may actually be a captured asteroid.
The mission is called Phobos-Grunt - "grunt" means "soil" in Russian.
Shortly after taking off however, there were reports that the spacecraft had veered off course.
The Russian space agency said an engine designed to keep the probe on track failed to start, according to Russia's Interfax news agency.
But there are hopes the rocket can still be brought back on course.
The venture is also significant because it is carrying China's first Mars satellite.
Yinghuo-1 is a 115kg probe that will ride piggyback and be released into an observation orbit around the Red Planet.

Read more here
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15631472

[M Paul Lloyd]

Not only off course but now the engines won't fire!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15631472

[Jamie]

In Soviet Russia, Mars probes YOU!

[M Paul Lloyd]

In the early days they were way ahead of anyone else, but then it all went to hell.

http://www.mentallandscape.com/C_CatalogMars.htm