The MMX spacecraft will orbit Phobos, collect material from its surface, and return to Earth by 2029.
Phobos is about 22 kilometers in diameter and Deimos is about 13 kilometers in diameter.
Some scientists propose that Phobos and Deimos may be made up of residual debris from an impact event on Mars.
The MMX rover is part of JAXA's Mars Moon eXploration mission to study Mars' moons, Phobos and Deimos, and to bring back samples from Phobos.
The MMX rover will land on Phobos as a scout for the main mission and will drive to study the composition and characteristics of the soil on Phobos.
SpaceX acquired two oil rigs that it renamed Phobos and Deimos with the intent to convert them into offshore launch platforms for its Starship vehicle and later sold the rigs.
SpaceX acquired two oil rigs in 2020 and named them Phobos and Deimos.
Port shipping manifests published in 2023-02-01 show Deimos scheduled to depart Pascagoula on 2023-02-20 and Phobos scheduled to depart on 2023-03-12.
NASA funded the Phobos Regolith Ion Sample Mission (PRISM), a 12-unit cubesat equipped with an instrument to study particles ejected from the surfaces of Phobos and Deimos in response to solar wind and micrometeorite bombardment.
DLR and JAXA will collaborate on the Martian Moon Exploration mission (MMX), a medium-class mission set for launch in 2024 to explore Phobos and Deimos.
JAXA is planning the Martian Moon eXploration (MMX) mission scheduled to launch in 2024 to return samples from Mars’s moon Phobos.