Phobos program Phobos program The Phobos (, ) program was an unmanned space mission consisting of two probes launched by the Soviet Union to study Mars and its moons Phobos and Deimos. "Phobos 1" was launched on 7 July 1988, and "Phobos 2" on 12 July 1988, each aboard a Proton-K rocket. "Phobos 1" suffered a terminal failure en route to Mars. "Phobos 2" attained Mars orbit, but contact was lost before the final phase, prior to deployment of a planned Phobos lander. "Phobos 1" and "2" were of a new spacecraft design, succeeding the type used in the "Venera" planetary missions
Discovery and exploration of the Solar System Domenico Cassini later discovered four more moons of Saturn and the Cassini division in Saturn's rings. Edmond Halley realised in 1705 that repeated sightings of a comet were recording the same object, returning regularly once every 75–76 years. This was the first evidence that anything other than the planets orbited the Sun. Around this time (1704), the term "Solar System" first appeared in English. In 1781, William Herschel was looking for binary stars in the constellation of Taurus when he observed what he thought was a new comet. Its orbit revealed that it was a new planet, Uranus, the first