Phobos

But for some reason, those engine burns never happened, and Phobos-Grunt has continued to circle the Earth.

That long name comes from the Greek language. The word Gelos means laugh, while phobos means fear.

In contrast, PHOBOS observes particles over the widest possible angular range and studies correlations among them.

Phobos (Human): An experienced veteran, he led the invasion of the demon-haunted tunnels of Phobos.

The Soviet Union recently launched a probe designed to land equipment on the Martian satellite Phobos.

And he says the nation should consider a stop-over base on the Martian moon Phobos .

This should make it easier to contact Phobos-Grunt in future.

It will be an exciting year for missions to Mars and its moon, Phobos.

And what about launching rockets and satellites into space, like Phobos-Grunt?

A Russian spacecraft will soon depart for Phobos, the larger of Mars's two tiny moons.

EarthSky spoke with Thomas Duxbury, on the science team collecting images of Phobos.

China's first planetary probe, the tiny Yinghuo 1 orbiter, will also hitch a ride to Mars with Phobos-Grunt.

Phobos-Grunt will be Russia's first [Mars] attempt since an unsuccessful launch 15 years ago.

China will also take part in Russia's project to send an unmanned probe to Mars' moon, Phobos, to collect soil samples, the paper said.

Mars' tiny moon Phobos created a big stir among astronomers in early 2010.

The Phobos-Grunt spacecraft is stuck in Earth orbit and has only until December to break free for Mars. John Matson reports

Phobos-Grunt is Russia's most ambitious space venture in years

The High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) onboard the ESA spacecraft Mars Express took this image of Mars' moon Phobos on 7 March 2010. (ESA)