Deimos and Phobos Interior Explorer Center (DLR) and a study team with representatives of the scientific community and the space industry. The mission would explore the origin and the evolution of the two Martian moons, and would also contribute to the general questions of planetary formation and the workings of the Solar System. The origin of the Martian moons is controversial. Phobos and Deimos both have much in common with carbonaceous C-type asteroids, with spectra, albedo, and density very similar to those of C- or D-type asteroids. Based on their similarity, one hypothesis is that both moons may be captured main-belt asteroids. Another hypothesis is
Mars Global Surveyor shoot pictures of other orbiting bodies, such as other spacecraft and the moons of Mars. In 1998 it imaged what was later called the Phobos monolith, found in MOC Image 55103. After analyzing hundreds of high-resolution pictures of the Martian surface taken by the orbiting Mars Surveyor spacecraft, a team of researchers found that weathering and winds on the planet create landforms, especially sand dunes, remarkably similar to those in some deserts on Earth. Results from the "Mars Global Surveyor" primary mission (1996–2001) were published in the Journal of Geophysical Research by M. Malin and K. Edgett. Some of these