Moons of Mars on the sides of Saturn (later discovered to be its rings), used the anagram "smaismrmilmepoetaleumibunenugttauiras" for "Altissimum planetam tergeminum observavi" ("I have observed the most distant planet to have a triple form"), Johannes Kepler had misinterpreted it to mean "Salve umbistineum geminatum Martia proles" (Hello, furious twins, sons of Mars). Perhaps inspired by Kepler (and quoting Kepler's third law of planetary motion), Jonathan Swift's satire "Gulliver's Travels" (1726) refers to two moons in Part 3, Chapter 3 (the "Voyage to Laputa"), in which Laputa's astronomers are described as having discovered two satellites of Mars orbiting at distances of 3 and
The Secret of the Martian Moons that unlocks Mars’ secret. A political controversy is raging on Earth as to whether or not to continue to support the Martian outpost, where Nelson’s father is research chief. Those in favor point to the marvelous machines found on Mars, any one of which could advance civilization eons, if their secret could be discovered. Going to work on the problem, Nelson finds out – in an interesting chain of events that characterizes a Mars basically like the canal-covered red planet we know it to be now – that the Martian moons Phebos (sic) and Deimos, are centers of tyrannical factions