NASA Targets Moons of Mars for Potential Robotic Mission

By Mike Wall, Senior Writer After a successful mission to Mars with the latest rover (Curiosity), the scientific community and many people of the general public look forward to NASAs next big mission. Currently NASA has its eyes on sending a rover or rovers to two of Mars moons, Phobo and Deimos. The mission would be based off of the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) mission that cost the space agency $280 million. LADEE has been circling Earths moon since late 2013. The rover theyd like to send to one of Mars moons is temporarily called LADEE2. Currently, there isnt any money in the NASA budget for this mission, so for now, its just a concept mission. Phobos and Deimos are thought to be two captured asteroids. Phobos, the larger of the two, is about 14 miles in diameter while Deimos is approxiamtely 7.7 miles in diameter. Scientists hope that an exploratory mission will eventually lead to a manned-mission, which in turn would promote a human base on one of the moons. As for now its all just a hopeful dream, but maybe, with persistence and a few extra dollars, we could have astronauts heading to Mars.