Transit of Phobos from Mars north of 70.4°N; for some days in the year, its shadow misses the surface entirely and falls north or south of Mars. At any given geographical location on the surface of Mars, there are two intervals in a Martian year when the shadow of Phobos or Deimos is passing through its latitude. During each such interval, about half a dozen transits of Phobos can be seen by observers at that geographical location (compared to zero or one transits of Deimos). Transits of Phobos happen during Martian autumn and winter in the respective hemisphere; close to the equator they happen around
Phobos (moon) is currently ongoing. As of 2017, MMX is scheduled to be launched in 2024, and will return to Earth five years later. Russia plans to repeat Fobos-Grunt mission in the late 2020s, and the European Space Agency is assessing a sample-return mission for 2024 called Phootprint. Phobos has been proposed as an early target for a Human mission to Mars. The teleoperation of robotic scouts on Mars by humans on Phobos could be conducted without significant time delay, and planetary protection concerns in early Mars exploration might be addressed by such an approach. Phobos has also been proposed as an