The Mars Moons Exploration’s mission: grab a piece of one of Mars’s moons and bring it back to Earth. Talk about a big job! No wonder this is the first time anyone’s ever attempted this.
Our inner Solar System has only three moons: one for Earth and two for Mars. Mars may have two moons, but they’re both relatively small. The smaller moon, Deimos, is about 6 miles across. Phobos is around double that, but, at 12 miles across, its diameter is still closer to the distance to your local grocery store than the size of Earth’s Moon (which is over 2,000 miles across).
Scientists want to bring a sample from Phobos back to Earth, which should hopefully help answer the question: How exactly did these Mars moons form? One possibility is that a giant impact on early Mars blasted debris into space that later became the moons. Another is that Phobos and Deimos started as asteroids that were captured by Mars’s gravity.
Until now, the only pieces of Mars that scientists have been able to study fell to Earth as meteorites, but these types of samples become contaminated as they travel through our atmosphere. A piece taken directly from Phobos, however, would be pristine.
The plan is for the spacecraft to fly past Deimos, send a rover onto Phobos, and later land to collect a sample that is expected to return to Earth in 2031. After all this, researchers are expecting a whopping… 10 grams of material. That’s the same as about two nickels! But scientists say that is enough, especially because they would be able to do several studies on each grain of material.
Quick! Color in the trolley dash before Bluey catches Dad and Bingo.
Inspired by Season 1, Episode 45 "Kids": A quick trip to the shops proves tricky for Dad, when Bingo and Bluey want to play a game of Kids. Now Bluey is Mum, Bingo’s her baby and Dad is a very naughty boy!
Crumbled steak! Mum's left the shopping list at home! Have a long look at her list, then fold it back and see how much you remember:
- What color balloon did Mum want? Red or green
- How many avocados did Mum need? 6 or 2
- Do you remember what sport equipment? Cricket bat or hockey stick.
Turn the shopping list back over and count up how many you got right. How did you do?
The Mars Moons Exploration’s mission: grab a piece of one of Mars’s moons and bring it back to Earth. Talk about a big job! No wonder this is the first time anyone’s ever attempted this.
Our inner Solar System has only three moons: one for Earth and two for Mars. Mars may have two moons, but they’re both relatively small. The smaller moon, Deimos, is about 6 miles across. Phobos is around double that, but, at 12 miles across, its diameter is still closer to the distance to your local grocery store than the size of Earth’s Moon (which is over 2,000 miles across).
Scientists want to bring a sample from Phobos back to Earth, which should hopefully help answer the question: How exactly did these Mars moons form? One possibility is that a giant impact on early Mars blasted debris into space that later became the moons. Another is that Phobos and Deimos started as asteroids that were captured by Mars’s gravity.
Until now, the only pieces of Mars that scientists have been able to study fell to Earth as meteorites, but these types of samples become contaminated as they travel through our atmosphere. A piece taken directly from Phobos, however, would be pristine.
The plan is for the spacecraft to fly past Deimos, send a rover onto Phobos, and later land to collect a sample that is expected to return to Earth in 2031. After all this, researchers are expecting a whopping… 10 grams of material. That’s the same as about two nickels! But scientists say that is enough, especially because they would be able to do several studies on each grain of material.
Quick! Color in the trolley dash before Bluey catches Dad and Bingo.
Inspired by Season 1, Episode 45 "Kids": A quick trip to the shops proves tricky for Dad, when Bingo and Bluey want to play a game of Kids. Now Bluey is Mum, Bingo’s her baby and Dad is a very naughty boy!
Crumbled steak! Mum's left the shopping list at home! Have a long look at her list, then fold it back and see how much you remember:
- What color balloon did Mum want? Red or green
- How many avocados did Mum need? 6 or 2
- Do you remember what sport equipment? Cricket bat or hockey stick.
Turn the shopping list back over and count up how many you got right. How did you do?