MOSCOW. Nov 21 (Interfax-AVN) - China will take part in the Russian Phobos-Grunt experiment, which envisions delivering samples of ground from Phobos, Mars' satellite planet, deputy head of the Federal Space Agency Yury Nosenko said on Tuesday.
"At the present time the sides are preparing an agreement on mounting a Chinese micro-satellite, weighing several dozen kilograms, on the Russian station," Nosenko said.
He pointed out that the Chinese spacecraft, worth about $1 million, would be mounted on the Russian space station to be sent to Phobos. The Chinese satellite will disengage and become Mars' artificial satellite, when the station approaches Mars.
According to him, China will also reimburse the Russian side for its control of the spacecraft.
In addition to that, Nosenko said that Chinese experts would take part in developing the ground sampling device, tasked with recovering a sample of Phobos ground and delivering it back to the Earth.
"The ground sampling device will be of the Russian make, but some of its parts will be Chinese," Nosenko said.
According to him, Russia has proposed that other foreign states take part in the Phobos-grunt project, but they have failed to arrive at any decision on time.
A spacecraft will be launched to Phobos in 2009, he noted.