Italian space agency ASI has announced that its CubeSat mission to the Martian moon Deimos has entered Phase B, marking the commencement of preliminary design work for both the orbiter and lander.
The Terrain Analyzer and Sample Tester Explorer (TASTE) is the tenth mission of ASI’s ALCOR Programme. Preparation for the Programme began in 2020 with a call for proposals titled “Future CubeSat Missions.” The primary goal of the Programme is to rapidly deploy innovative missions using small, cost-effective platforms, with a focus on commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components. A total of 48 proposals were submitted, of which 20 were selected for development.
TASTE will be tasked with collecting data that will aid in understanding the origin of the Martian moon Deimos. It will utilize a CubeSat-in-CubeSat mission architecture, consisting of a 12U orbiter and a 4U lander. The orbiter will host two main payloads: a multispectral camera and an X-γ-ray spectrometer. The lander will feature a VIS-IR camera, a system for collecting surface samples, and a lab-on-a-chip for sample analysis. Due to its small size, TASTE will hitch a ride to the Red Planet aboard a larger, yet-to-be-announced vehicle already headed in that direction.
Work on the TASTE mission began in January 2023, led by a consortium that includes INAF-Arcetri, INAF-Trieste, and Politecnico di Milano. In November 2023, ASI announced the successful conclusion of Phase A development with the completion of a preliminary requirements review. On 14 February 2025, the agency announced that work on Phase B development had begun. This phase of the mission’s development will include preliminary design work for both the orbiter and lander.
While ASI is pushing forward with the mission’s development, it has not yet revealed when it expects to launch TASTE.
