Mercury-P

Mercury-P

Mercury-P spacecraft
Mission type	Planetary
Operator	Russian Federal Space Agency
Start of mission
Launch date	Circa 2031
Rocket	Soyuz-2
Mercury orbiter
Mercury lander

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 ("landing"). The initial study was planned to 2019, but because of crash of the Phobos-Grunt spacecraft, the implementation period was later significantly postponed to 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

1. "Mercury-P project". Russianspaceweb. 13 January 2013.
2. РАН: запуск «Венеры-Д» состоится не ранее 2024 года
3. РФ запустит зонд к Венере не раньше 2024 г, к Меркурию - после 2031 г