Posted on by Andy Tomaswick

The Best Evidence for Life on Mars Might be Found on its Moons

The search for Martian life has been ongoing for decades.  Various landers and rovers have searched for biosignatures or other hints that life existed either currently or in the past on the Red Planet.  But so far, results have been inconclusive.  That might be about to change, though, with a slew of missions planned to collect even more samples for testing.  Mars itself isn’t the only place they are looking, though. Some scientists think the best place to find evidence of life is one of Mars’ moons. 

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Posted on by Andy Tomaswick

Testing the Rover That’ll Land on Phobos

Rovers seem to be proliferating all over Mars.  There are currently 4 on the surface, and another (Perseverance) will be arriving in a few months after a successful launch at the end of July.  Mars itself isn’t the only interesting rocky body in the Martian system, however.  Its two moons, Phobos and Deimos, pose a bit of a mystery.  How were they formed? Were they captured asteroids or caused by an impact similar to Earth’s own Moon?

Scientists and engineers are now one step closer to answering those questions with the successful test of a rover that will visit Phobos with JAXA’s Martian Moon Exploration (MMX) mission that will launch in 2024.  The rover, which has yet to be separately named from its parent mission, just underwent some testing that will help to prove it’s worthy to join the pantheon of rovers roaming around the Martian system.

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