MOSCOW. April 7 (Interfax-AVN) - Microorganisms of 50 species will be sent to Mars in the Phobos Grunt experiment, Vice-President of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Academician Anatoly Grigoryev said.
He was taking part in an academic conference dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the Yuri Gagarin space flight.
"We are preparing for the Phobos Grunt mission. This is the first mission to bring living organisms to Mars. They will spend some time there and come back to Earth," the scientist said.
"It is important to estimate the influence of flight conditions, including radiation, on them," he said.
It is planned to send the Phobos Grunt interplanetary rover on mission in the period from late October to late November 2011.
The rover will bring samples of Phobos soil and study Mars, its moon Phobos and circum-planetary space. The total time of the mission is three years.