Phobos Options

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http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars_Express/

These images, taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft, are Europe’s highest-resolution pictures so far of the Martian moon Phobos.

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars_Express/SEM21TVJD1E_0.html

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Mars Express to rendezvous with Martian moon
http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars_Express/SEMVGAWIPIF_0.html
16 July 2008
Scientists and engineers are preparing ESA’s Mars Express for a pair of close fly-bys of the Martian moon Phobos. Passing within 100 km of the surface, Mars Express will conduct some of the most detailed investigations of the moon to date.

The series of fly-bys will take place between 12 July and 3 August. During the second encounter, the spacecraft will fly within 273 km of the surface. Six days later, Mars Express will close to within just 97 km.

Although the Red Planet itself has been studied in detail, very little is known about the origins of its moons, Phobos and Deimos. It is unclear if the moons are actually asteroids that were captured by Mars’s gravity and never left its orbit. Another possibility is that Phobos and Deimos are actually surviving planetesimals, bodies which formed the planets of the Solar System. They may also be remnants of an impact of a large object on Mars.

As Mars Express closes-in on Phobos, the data gathered will help scientists answer these questions.