# Will Curiosity Be Able to Photograph Phobos and Deimos? Will It? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 2, 2012, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-curiosity-be-able-to-photograph-phobos-and-deimos-will-it/633404 "2012-09-02T00:55:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2012, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-curiosity-be-able-to-photograph-phobos-and-deimos-will-it/633404/1 "2012-09-02T00:55:01Z")
That’s basically it- will Curiosity be able to get a good shot of Mars’ two moons, and if so, are there any plans for it to do so? ---
**Author:** ![Santos\_L\_Halper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/santos_l_halper/32/1_2.png) [@Santos\_L\_Halper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santos_L_Halper)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2012, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-curiosity-be-able-to-photograph-phobos-and-deimos-will-it/633404/2 "2012-09-02T02:06:11Z")
The Mars rover Spirit was able to [photograph Phobos and Deimos](http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/spirit/20050909a.html), so Curiosity definitely could. I don’t know that they’ve got any specific plans to. More likely they will if the opportunity (no pun intended) presents itself. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2012, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-curiosity-be-able-to-photograph-phobos-and-deimos-will-it/633404/3 "2012-09-02T08:57:02Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > That’s basically it- will Curiosity be able to get a good shot of Mars’ two moons, and if so, are there any plans for it to do so? I highly doubt it’s a priority, because nothing could be learned from photos of them from the Martian surface. They’ve been photographed in detail by other Mars orbiters. Plus Mars’ ‘moons’ barely qualify as such. They’re tiny, so small that they’re both irregularly shaped (i.e. not round). ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2012, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-curiosity-be-able-to-photograph-phobos-and-deimos-will-it/633404/4 "2012-09-02T11:39:33Z")
It would make more sense for any photos of Mars’ moons to be taken from the [Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Reconnaissance_Orbiter). No atmosphere in the way, and all that. ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2012, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-curiosity-be-able-to-photograph-phobos-and-deimos-will-it/633404/5 "2012-09-02T11:52:03Z")
To summarise the point - the OP asks for a “good” shot of the moons. So the answer is no. The link provided by **Santos L Halper** shows how good any picture will be. Curiosity has slightly better cameras than Spirit and Opportunity, but not much. Not enough to make any difference to the images of the moons. Curiosity is built to look at rocks. It doesn’t have any form of telescope imager on board. Whilst a cute trick, there is no science to be had in taking such an image, and so will be left to chance only. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2012, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-curiosity-be-able-to-photograph-phobos-and-deimos-will-it/633404/6 "2012-09-02T13:03:13Z")
Not only have previous rovers taken pictures of the satellites, they were able to do so during Solar transits! From [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deimos_(moon)): “On March 4, 2004 a transit of Deimos was photographed by Mars Rover Opportunity, and on March 13, 2004 a transit was photographed by Mars Rover Spirit.” The NASA folk are always on the lookout for ways to take special pics. If there’s a transit, conjuction, etc., they’ll want to take a picture of it. ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Ayebaw](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darth_ayebaw/32/9870_2.png) [@Darth\_Ayebaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Ayebaw)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2012, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-curiosity-be-able-to-photograph-phobos-and-deimos-will-it/633404/7 "2012-09-12T22:39:42Z")
> **[Curiosity Mars rover to 'drive, drive, drive'](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19575796)** > > The Mars Curiosity rover has all but completed its commissioning phase and is ready to begin its detailed investigation of the Red Planet. _Even in the next few days, the science will ramp up as Curiosity uses its mast camera system to image the passage of Mars’ two moons, Phobos and Deimos, across the face of Sun._