Phobos And Deimos & Mars Environment Deimos by studying: In addition, PADME would assess potential resources (water, organics, regolith) and potential hazards (dust) that Phobos and Deimos might present for future human exploration in Mars orbit. Once in Mars orbit, PADME would carry out 16 flybys of Phobos followed by 9 flybys of Deimos. Flybys would take place at two-week intervals. Flyby altitudes at closest approach to Phobos and Deimos would be ~2 km. Following completion of its primary mission, PADME could remain in high Mars orbit for long-term monitoring of the martian system and search for potential additional moonlets around Mars. Alternatively, PADME could be
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