April 20, 2017

Organisation

The Russian space agency Roscosmos had oversight responsibility for the Phobos-Grunt mission. Lavochkin was the prime contractor on the spacecraft. IKI was in charge of developing most of the scientific instruments (GAP included).

CNES oversaw the French contribution to the mission for every involved CNRS laboratory by:

  • funding French laboratories’ contributions (except for human resources);
  • overseeing their development;
  • providing support in certain space-related fields according to laboratories’ needs (quality insurance, mechanics, thermal, component expertise, etc.);
  • acting as liaison to Roscosmos and IKI for technical and programme issues
  • funding and supporting French researchers who did not deliver equipment but were associated with instrument teams or selected after a tender process to take part in scientific work on the mission data.

Through its laboratories (LATMOS, GSMA, IAS), CNES oversaw instrument development and thus provided the human resources (scientists and technicians) needed for their achievement.