Yinghuo-1

Yinghuo-1 was a Chinese Mars orbiter of about 110 to 115 kilograms that China's space agency agreed in 2007 to launch as a piggyback passenger on the Russian Fobos-Grunt mission. After reaching Mars orbit it was to separate and enter a highly eccentric orbit of roughly 800 by 80,000 kilometers at 36 degrees inclination, a path chosen to sample the solar wind, bow shock, magnetosheath, magnetic pileup region and plasma sheet. Its science goals were to study the Martian magnetosphere, ionosphere and plasma environment, the escape of ions and its bearing on the loss of the planet's water, to make moderate surveys of surface topography and sandstorms, and to probe the gravity field near the equator. It carried two fixed deployable solar arrays and batteries and was designed for a one year lifetime. Yinghuo-1 launched on 8 November 2011 from Baikonur on a Zenit-2FG with Fobos-Grunt, whose propulsion module failed to ignite, leaving both craft in low Earth orbit and the mission lost.