“Bumerang” Must Return to Earth

Abstract—The “Bumerang” space mission to the satellites of Mars is discussed. The purpose of the mission is to study the satellites and return of soil samples from Phobos to the Earth. The previous such missions to Mars are revisited. To increase the chances of success of the “Bumerang” mission, it is proposed to carry out a preemptive demo flight to a small asteroid, ahead of the mission. The goal of this flight is to test the technological version of the mission’s space complex while simultaneously obtaining scientific and applied information of independent and significant value. Results are presented of the studies on the outlook of the demo flight to the asteroid.