Deimos and Phobos Interior Explorer that the moons of Mars may have formed after a huge collision with a protoplanet one third the mass of Mars that formed a ring around Mars. A third hypothesis is that they may have co-accreted with the parent planet. DePhine mission would explore the origin and the evolution of the two Martian satellites, by focusing on their interior structures and diversity. The mission would attempt to determine if Phobos and Deimos true siblings, originating from the same source and sharing the same formation scenario. It would also determine if both natural satellites are rubble piles or solid bodies, and
Phobos 2 to approach within of Phobos' surface and release two landers, one a mobile , the other a stationary platform, contact with "Phobos 2" was lost. The mission ended when the spacecraft signal failed to be successfully reacquired on 27 March 1989. The cause of the failure was determined to be a malfunction of the on-board computer. The "Phobos 2" infrared spectrometer (ISM) obtained 45000 spectra in the near infrared (from ) in the equatorial areas of Mars, with a spatial resolution ranging from , and 400 spectra of Phobos at 700 m resolution. These observations made it possible to retrieve