MMX: We'll Send A Lander And A Rover To The Mars Moons Phobos and Deimos!
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There is a lot of talk of landing on Mars in the next few years, but what's this about a mission to the Mars moons? Join us as we explore the new mission planned for Phobos and Deimos.
9. What Is This Mission To The Martian Moons?
So let's start at the beginning, shall we? On Earth right now, the "major priority" is to land man on Mars for the first time ever. So much so that NASA, SpaceX and certain other companies are working out ways to not only get them there, but to get them there quickly, efficiently, and more. So given all of that work, why is it that there is someone trying to land something on the Martian moons of Phobos and Deimos? Who is doing this, and what is the purpose of it all?
The answer to the first question is JAXA, which is the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, who is fueling the mission to the Martian Moons. They will be helped by the space agencies of Germany and France as well. German is going to help them not just get there in their own way and help them study the moons to prepare for the launch, they'll lend equipment for the rover in question to study materials on the moon. As for France, they're going to help with the building and usage of the rover. Making sure that it's perfectly suited to go and survive and explore the moons of Mars.
But which moon will they go and try to land on? Planetary Scientist Tim Glotch noted his feelings on the matter:
"My guess is that they would go to Phobos unless there was some kind of spacecraft engineering reason not to, because it's a bigger target and has more gravity."
A sound guess, and one that will likely play out like he expects it too. But that still raises the question...
8. Why Does Japan Want To Go To These Moons?
I'm sure that to some of you out there the question of going to a moon of Mars with a rover instead of to Mars proper with a space shuttle and people may seem kind of...lame. After all, one is advancing the human race through the stars, and the other at best is a fact-finding mission. So what is JAXA aiming to do on these moons?
Well, the official mission as stated by them is to go to either Phobos or Deimos, collect 10 grams worth of material and then bring it back to Earth. Also though, they aim:
To reveal the origin of Mars' moons, and to improve our understanding of planetary system formation and of primordial material transport around the border between the inner and outer regions in the early Solar System.
To observe processes that have impact on the evolution of the Mars system and to advance our understanding of Mars' surface environmental transition.
Both of these goals sound fancy, so let me break it down into smaller words for you. Basically, JAXA and others are aiming to go and try to learn more about Mars' moons so that they know how it affects Mars right now, and how it affected it in the past. The history of Mars is actually something that many at NASA and beyond have been trying to uncover, because all the signs point to the fact that Mars not only had vast quantities of water, but was a much more habitable place over time, and they want to know what happened. So if they can't find the answers on Mars, perhaps the answers can come from the moon.
That's not so far-fetched as the Earth's moon has led to some interesting discoveries about our own planet. Including how the moon is likely a chunk of the Earth that was launched into space after a collision with an asteroid. This was theorized after a kind of rock was found both on the Earth and on the moon and had the same composition to the letter.
So if we can find that on the Earth's moon, imagine what we can find on Mars' moon? Plus, there may be another reason for this...
7. The First
History is determined by a lot of things, you likely know the phrase, "History is written by the winners", which is true to an extent. But another way of looking at it is that history is defined by the people and groups who did something first. So it might surprise you that there have been no rovers or other entities that have been landed on Mars' moons.
Obviously, we've landed plenty of things on Mars over the years, mainly because Mars is a planet, and we've held it in high esteem as a place where we might colonize (and we are working on those colonization plans right now), but as for the moons...we've had probes and satellites go past them in various distances, we've had telescopes look at them and take pictures of them...but we haven't had anything land on them.
So if JAXA (and partners) are able to complete the mission that they are setting out to do, they'll be making history in a whole host of ways.
6. The Composition of The Martian Moons
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