Phobos (moon) was proposed to place an orbiter in Mars orbit by 2021 to study Phobos and Deimos through a series of close flybys. The mission is called Phobos And Deimos & Mars Environment (PADME). Two other Phobos missions that were proposed for the Discovery 13 selection included a mission called "Merlin", which would flyby Deimos but actually orbit and land on Phobos, and another one is "Pandora" which would orbit both Deimos and Phobos. The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) unveiled in 9 June 2015 the Martian Moons Exploration (MMX), a sample return mission targeting Phobos. MMX will land and collect
Phobos 1 into three phases. In stage one the probe would investigate the Sun and interplanetary space while traveling from the Earth to Mars. In stage two the probe would study Mars and Phobos while in orbit around Mars. During the final stage it would approach to within 50 meters of the Phobos surface while conducting several experiments. The Phobos probe carried several scientific experiments. It carried a radar transmitter, X-ray and alpha-backscatter spectrometers, camera, and a laser that could vaporize tiny spots so a reflector could analyze the vapor for atomic masses. The probe also carried a . The hopper would