After George Bush announced to the world back in 2004 that the US would aim to send a manned mission to Mars, the underfunded yet persistant Russian space agency (the Lavochkin Association) began dusting off old plans of their own, with a view to reclaiming the crown of remote robotic planetary exploration. Despite the fact that many of the Association’s staff are paid little more than retail cashiers, they are confident that their unfortunately-named probe ‘Phobos-Grunt’ will fulfil its mission to land on one of the moons of Mars and bring soil samples back to Earth.