be returned to Earth for study three years later. Ultimately, NASA rejected this proposal in favor of MESSENGER, a probe to Mercury. In 2007, the European Space Agency and EADS Astrium proposed and developed a mission to Phobos in 2016 with a lander and sample return, but this mission was never flown. Canadian Space Agency has been considering the Phobos Reconnaissance and International Mars Exploration (PRIME) mission to Phobos with orbiter and lander since 2007. Since 2013 NASA developed the Phobos Surveyor mission concept with an orbiter and a small rover. NASA's PADME mission was designed to conduct multiple flybys of the Martian moons, but was not chosen for development. Also, NASA is assessing the OSIRIS-REx II, concept mission for a sample return from Phobos. Another sample return mission from Deimos, called Gulliver, has been conceptualized. Current proposals JAXA plans to launch Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission in 2024 to bring back the first samples from Phobos. The spacecraft will enter orbit around Mars, then transfer to Phobos, and land once or twice and gather sand-like regolith particles using a simple pneumatic system. The lander mission aims to retrieve a minimum of samples. The spacecraft will then take off from Phobos and make several flybys of the smaller moon Deimos before sending the Return Module back to Earth, arriving in July 2029. Gallery See also Satellites of Mars Notes References Further reading First International Conference On The Exploration Of Phobos And Deimos (2007) Pascal Lee – A Case for the Human Exploration of the Moons of Mars (2007) (pdf) External links Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature – Mars (USGS) Interactive 3D visualisation of the orbits of Mars and its moons Phobos and Deimos Lists of moons