Questions tagged [phobos]
Phobos is the larger and inner of the two natural satellites of Mars.
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Can we land on either of Mars' moons?
Is it possible for anything to land safely of Deimos or Phobos? If so, are there any current or past proposals? If not, why? The only missions to Mars' moons I know of are Phobos 1 and Phobos 2 (both ...
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What modifications would be necessary to make to a Mars rover to let it land on Phobos or Deimos?
What modifications would be necessary to make to a Mars rover to let it land on Phobos or Deimos? In this question, I found out that a Mars rover would need a host of modifications to land on Phobos ...
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Could a Mars rover go to Phobos or Deimos instead?
Could a Mars rover go to Phobos or Deimos instead of going to Mars? The choice is made after launch, and no further modifications can be made to the rover. Could it land safely? Up to what point could ...
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What are and could be all the advantages and disadvantages to have a crewed station on Phobos before landing crewed missions on Mars?
Stickney crater on Phobos
For both images, credits: NASA/JPL
The image above shows the Phobos monolith near Stickney crater, a sign or message to go there first ?
An example of an advantage is the ...
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What's the escape velocity at the near/far end of Phobos considering tidal forces?
At the Roche limit tidal forces disintegrate bodies. A rock or a human would just float away from the points nearest/farthest from Mars. The tidal forces must be higher for rigid bodies than rubble ...
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What would be the trajectory and initial speed of a chunk launched from Phobos to get as close as possible to any pole of Mars?
Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / University of Arizona
Phobos has a nearly circular orbit almost parallel with the equator of Mars.
It orbits the planet in only 7h.39 min. at a height of 6000 km above the ...
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Hypothetical Internet on Phobos
If there was a ground base on the surface of Phobos, with current or developing technology, would it be viable to have an internet connection?
Even with optical communication like DSOC, would it be ...
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How big is Mars as seen from Phobos?
If I were standing on the surface of Phobos looking at Mars, how big would it appear in the sky? Would it be like one hand at arm's length? Or take up like a third of the sky?
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Deimos and Phobos minerals
I am searching for Deimos and Phobos mineral maps, which probably are the best candidates to find large amounts of He-3 or other valuable resources to send to Mars colonies in the future. I searched ...
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Is there any footage from Mars where you can see Deimos or Phobos getting bigger and smaller as it goes through the sky?
This answer mentions that on Mars, you can see its satellite get bigger and smaller as it rises and sets, because the satellite orbits much closer than our own Moon does from Earth.
I'm pretty sure ...
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Venus-Mars-Venus cycler?
Is it possible to create a cycler that can travel from Venus to Mars, then back to Venus? Using as little delta-V as possible.
To expound a bit further, it would need to travel from Venus to Mars ...
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How Safe Is Phobos in Terms of Radiation Exposure?
I am wondering if Mars' body provides enough protection against radiation on Phobos. The lack of magnosphere is a significant factor highly worsening the radiation exposure, making the planet ...
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The Earth's Moon versus Phobos and gravity
Our Moon weighs 7.35 x 1022 kg and Mars' moon Phobos, weighs 10.6 × 1015 kg.
How much would need to be added to Phobos to give it the same gravitational "impact" on Mars, as the Moon ...
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Is the cause of the Phobos-2 probe failure definitively known?
In 1987 the ambitious Soviet probe Phobos (Fobos)-2 made it to Martian orbit and started transmitting data. The Planetary Society Phobos-2 page shows all 38 images received over a period of about a ...
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How much goes Phobos in the direction of Mars with a constant force in that direction? [duplicate]
Edit: Although this question may look similar to this one, here I am asking about a constant force in the direction of Mars, and no one of the answers there have answered this question.
Because ...
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What is the timespan for a block of Phobos to reach a low orbit around Mars with a solar sail?
Edit: Although this question has been marked as a duplicate of this one about solar sail thrust calculation, they are different because I ask about a solar sail that has an orbital trajectory and ...
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If we were to land on Phobos, what could we gain?
Unique from landing on Mars itself what could we learn from Phobos that we couldn't learn from our own moon or from landing on Mars? Seeing as Phobos orbits Mars faster than the planet itself rotates, ...
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How do you find ZRVTOs between tethers from coplanar, tidelocked bodies?
In 1984 JPL engineer Paul Penzo described a ZRVTO (Zero Relative Velocity Transfer Orbit) between an elevator anchored on Deimos and an elevator anchored on Phobos.
Here is a Penzo’s illustration:
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How thick is the dust layer on Phobos?
How thick is the dust layer on Phobos? Is it pretty much constant or are there significant extremes?
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Calculating low-thrust capture delta-V with high $V_{inf}$
I'm designing a CubeSat mission to the Martian moons, and am having trouble calculating capture delta-V. Once it gets into a circular orbit, I can do the rest, but the capture itself is giving me ...
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Could Mars be made much more habitable by boulders from Phobos?
Of course, research on Mars is first needed to explore if there is life or has been in the past.
But after that, boulders could be thrown from Phobos at specific areas on Mars, like Utopia Planitia, ...
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Is there a synchronous orbital height for Phobos?
My assumption is that any body in the solar system would have it's own specific geo-synchronous orbit height. But when I took a look at Phobos and calculated the GEO height based on the simple formula ...
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Is it possible to get a boulder from Phobos to one of the poles of Mars?
And what will then be the speed theoretically at which it hits the surface at one of the poles ?
Please, specify your calculations and the trajectory.
Edit: Why should this be a bad question, with ...
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Could Phobos be easily saved from falling apart?
Edit: Since i've learned a lot from the excellent answer below, i've changed the content of my question totally to make it more realistic.
The orbital radius of Phobos is gradually decreasing by 2 ...
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How much energy is needed to bring Phobos closer to Mars?
Because Phobos has always the same face turned toward Mars, an electric propulsion system could be placed at the front to slow down the orbital speed.
But what would be the energy needed to supply the ...
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What are the proposed causes of these striations on Phobos?
In a picture of Phobos, it appears as if there are striations which circle it, and orthogonal striations which are reminiscent of topological maps. Are these digital photography effects or real? If ...
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What is the average distance to any asteroid nearer and larger than Phobos?
How much of the time, if it happens at all, is Phobos the nearest interplanetary object of its size (r=11.3 km) to the Earth-Moon system? Are there maybe larger NEAs always lurking closer by? I can't ...
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How long can a moon orbit a planet?
Today it was announced that Phobos was formed in a giant explosion, similar to how the Moon was formed. Phobos is actually coming closer to Mars every year, and has an expected 10 million year ...
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Could the ISS be spun to simulate Phobos' gravity?
Before a human crew goes to Mars' moon Phobos or to even lower mass asteroids, could a long stay at such an object be simulated gravitationally in the space station? I've heard that the ISS people don'...
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What delta-v is required to move between Phobos and Deimos?
I wonder how practical it would be for a spacecraft to visit both moons of Mars on the same mission. Areostationary orbit lies between the two moons, and GEO is demanding to reach from LEO.
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Could Orion be used for human exploration of Phobos and Deimos?
NASA's human space flight program plans to within 5 years or so have access to Orion and a launcher for it. Without a Lunar or Martian lander, the targets for Orion missions are limited.
But given ...
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Is it possible to map the caves of Phobos?
Having read that Phobos at 27 km long is around 30% porous, I am going to assume that there are a number of voids large enough for human entrance. If it turned out there was a void large enough and ...
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