Phobos And Deimos & Mars Environment Phobos And Deimos & Mars Environment Phobos And Deimos & Mars Environment (PADME) is a low-cost NASA Mars orbiter mission concept that would address longstanding unknowns about Mars' two moons Phobos and Deimos and their environment. The PADME mission competed for Discovery Program funding, but lost to the Psyche and Lucy missions. The mission is led by Anthony Colaprete (Principal Investigator). Other principals include Pascal Lee (Deputy Principal Investigator) and Butler Hine (Project Manager). The origin of Mars' satellites, which were discovered by astronomer Asaph Hall, remains unknown. PADME would advance the scientific understanding of the origin of Phobos and
Mars Cube One Mars Cube One Mars Cube One (or MarCO) is a Mars flyby mission that was launched on 5 May 2018 alongside NASA's "InSight" Mars lander mission. It consists of two nanospacecraft, MarCO-A and MarCO-B, that were able to provide a real-time communications link to Earth for "InSight" during its entry, descent, and landing (EDL) on 26 November 2018 - when "InSight" was out of line of sight from the Earth. Both are of the 6U CubeSat format, and the mission is a test of new miniaturized communications and navigation technologies. These are the first CubeSats designed to operate beyond Earth