Solar eclipses on Mars Solar eclipses on Mars The two moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos, are much smaller than the Moon, greatly reducing the frequency of solar eclipses on that planet. Neither moon's apparent diameter is large enough to cover the disk of the sun, and therefore they are annular solar eclipses and can also be considered transits. Due to the small size of Phobos (about ) and its rapid orbital motion, an observer on the surface of Mars would never experience a solar eclipse for longer than about thirty seconds. Phobos also takes only 7 hours 39 minutes to orbit Mars, while
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