Science operation plan of Phobos and Deimos from the MMX spacecraft

TLDR

The paper discusses the science operations and remote sensing instruments for the MMX mission to the Martian moons. It describes Phobos observations during the first 1.5 years and Deimos observations before departure, aiming to constrain their origins and identify landing sites for sample collection. The spacecraft will use low‑altitude quasi‑satellite orbits around Phobos for high‑resolution topographic and spectroscopic mapping, including polar regions from a 3‑D orbit, and will perform resonant orbit flybys of Deimos to image its surface over a large area. A graphical abstract summarizes the mission operations.

Abstract

Abstract The science operations of the spacecraft and remote sensing instruments for the Martian Moon eXploration (MMX) mission are discussed by the mission operation working team. In this paper, we describe the Phobos observations during the first 1.5 years of the spacecraft’s stay around Mars, and the Deimos observations before leaving the Martian system. In the Phobos observation, the spacecraft will be placed in low-altitude quasi-satellite orbits on the equatorial plane of Phobos and will make high-resolution topographic and spectroscopic observations of the Phobos surface from five different altitudes orbits. The spacecraft will also attempt to observe polar regions of Phobos from a three-dimensional quasi-satellite orbit moving out of the equatorial plane of Phobos. From these observations, we will constrain the origin of Phobos and Deimos and select places for landing site candidates for sample collection. For the Deimos observations, the spacecraft will be injected into two resonant orbits and will perform many flybys to observe the surface of Deimos over as large an area as possible. Graphical Abstract