Russia will launch a risky three-year mission that will land on mysterious Martian moon Phobos and will bring back soil samples back to Earth.

Scientists said the samples will hold clues to the genesis of the solar system's planets and help clarify Mars' mysteries, such as whether it was ever suitable for life.

The $163 million Phobos-Grunt mission will be the first time Russia is launching a deep space mission after almost two decades. It was first proposed in the 1970s but was delayed for years due to economic problems and limitations due to downsizing of scientific institutions.

Equipped with an array of scientific instruments from all over the world designed to gather and transmit data from the vicinity of Mars or from the surface of Phobos, the mission will mark the historic return of the Russian space science to the exploration of the solar system and to reach the Red Planet.

According to Anatoly Zak of the RussianSpaceWeb.Com, the return of a piece of the Martian moon, possibly containing geological samples from Mars itself delivered there by violent impacts in the planet's distant past, would be the ultimate prize for the world of planetary science.

"No matter the outcome, as Russia's first deep-space mission developed entirely in the post-Soviet period, Phobos-Grunt would pave the way to a new generation of robotic explorers heading to the Moon, Venus, Mars and other destinations in the Solar System," said Zak.

The exact landing date for the Phobos-Grunt descent module is expected to occur in February 2013 but nothing is certain until after the probe settles into orbit. The robotic arm on the lander will collect around 5.5 ounces of tiny rocks and dirt and scooped into a canister.

The container and its protective capsule will then be ejected off the lander to begin the trip back to Earth and is expected to arrive in August 2014.