Mercury-P

Mercury-P
Operator	Russian Federal Space Agency
Mission type	Orbiter, lander
Launch date	Circa 2031
Launch vehicle	Soyuz-2
Satellite of	Mercury

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

Russian space program

Russian Federal Space Agency

Organisations

Launch sites

Programs

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) Soviet manned lunar programs (Moon landing) Zvezda (moonbase) TMK (Mars/Venus flyby) Spiral Zvezda Zarya MAKS Kliper

Active	GLONASS International Space Station (joint) Russian Orbital Segment Soyuz

In development	Angara Baikal-Angara ExoMars (joint) Federatsiya Luna-Glob Luna 27 Venera-D Mercury-P OPSEK

Spacecraft missions to Mercury

Past	Mariner 10 (1973–75) MESSENGER (2004–15)

Planned	BepiColombo (2017) Mercury-P (~2031)

Cancelled	Mercury Observer

See also	Mariner program Exploration Colonization

Italics indicates active missions.

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