The complex space experiment Phobos will consist of two space probes carrying more than twenty experiments each. The primary purpose of the mission, launched in June 198B, is the exploration of the Mars satellite Phobos and of the planet itself. Various methods are used, including landing on the satellite and activation of its surface minerals by laser beam. During orbiting around Mars, the atmosphere of the planet will be studied. The secondary purpose is to study solar activity during the flight from Earth to Mars, gathering informations on solar wind, interplanetary shock waves, and gamma bursts. Solar X-ray activity will be monitored and solar
corona observed in X-rays; stereoscopic studies of the Sun will be made. The coordinator of the experiment is the Space Research Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, the other participants are from Austria, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Finland, France, German Democratic Republic, German Federal Republic,
Hungary, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland and ESA.