Mercury-P

The Mercury-P (Russian: Меркурий-П) is a proposed Russian space probe to Mercury.^[1] Mercury-P, where "P" apparently stood for the Russian word "posadka" - or landing. The initial study was planned to 2019, but because of crash of the Phobos-Grunt spacecraft, the implementation period was later significantly postponed as soon as possible in 2031.^[2][3]

Mercury-P should be the first lander on Mercury. A proposed flight scenario for the mission included a flyby of Venus, the insertion of the spacecraft into the orbit around Mercury and the delivery of a lander on its surface. The Institute of Space Research studied the possibility of "recycling" hardware developed for the Phobos-Grunt, Mars-NET, Mars-96 and Solar Sail spacecraft, with proposed upgrades of the hardware.

References

Russian space program Russian Federal Space Agency Active GLONASS International Space Station (joint) Russian Orbital Segment Soyuz In development Angara Baikal-Angara ExoMars (joint) PPTS (Rus) Luna-Glob Venera-D Mercury-P Previous Vostok Voskhod Salyut Almaz (incorporated into Salyut program) / TKS Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (joint) Mir Shuttle–Mir (joint) Energia / Buran Fobos-Grunt (failed) Cancelled Zond (7K-L1) (Moon flyby) N1-L3 (Moon landing) Zvezda (moonbase) TMK (Mars/Venus flyby) Spiral Zvezda Zarya MAKS Kliper Launch sites Baikonur Cosmodrome (in Kazakhstan) Dombarovsky Kapustin Yar Plesetsk Cosmodrome Svobodny Cosmodrome Vostochny Cosmodrome Organisation Space industry of Russia Russian Aerospace Defence Forces

Spacecraft missions to Mercury Past Mariner 10 (1973–75) MESSENGER (2004–15) Future BepiColombo (2016) Mercury-P See also Exploration of Mercury Colonization of Mercury Italics indicates active missions.