Swigert
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When I am near Mars in Orbiter, I usually fly over to Phobos or Deimos. I've always wondered if man could successfully land and preform EVA on one of the moons. Man has already walked on a moon before, but Phobos and Deimos are very different than Luna, Earth's moon. I like to think of Mars's moons as asteroids; they seem like balls of rock, after all, both moons have no atmospheres, which brings me to my next idea.
Knowing that Phobos and Deimos have no atmosphere or magnetic field, landing a manned spacecraft on the surface of either would be very different than what it would be to land on our moon. However, with a lack of atmosphere comes no air nor air pressure, meaning that the spacecraft and EVA equipment wouldn't have to be specially designed to withstand any more pressure than what it would flying in empty space, like an astronaut with an MMU, which could make a landing on one of Mars's moons a bit more possible. Furthermore, landing on one of the moons would be like flying regularly in space, due to the lack of gravity. Mars's gravitational pull would not be strong enough to actually pull the spacecraft from Phobos to Mars, if I am correct, as well. So landing on Phobos or Deimos would be just like landing on a big rock in space.
"But Sweigert, what about space radiation?" This would have to be put into perspective as well. If man were to land on Phobos or Deimos, which is already very unlikely, there would be severe health effects. Observe this graph.
Note that the graph shows data for Mars, not in, basically, free space. However, being so close to Mars, Phobos, for example, which is 5826 (9380 km) miles from Mars, this may not make a difference, although Mars has an atmosphere, unlike Phobos, which may make the data differ on Phobos.
Another challenge could be a launch window. Phobos orbits closely to Mars, while Deimos orbits further away from Mars. Observe this image for a better description!
Finding, none the less, waiting for a perfect launch window can take years. The spacecraft would have to launch from Earth on a perfect track to Mars, while the moon the astronauts would be landing on (Deimos, for example) would have to be on the left a bit. While orbiting Mars, and the spacecraft traveling to what appears to be Mars, Deimos would eventually be in the perfect position for a landing.
OR, the spacecraft could remain in high orbit of Mars, and wait for the moon to drift close to them, and take it from there.
What do you guys think about this? I'm not the smartest when it comes to space yet, so sorry if I provided incorrect or inaccurate information. Of course, man landing on a moon of Mars is very unlikely, I just wanted to share this.
Knowing that Phobos and Deimos have no atmosphere or magnetic field, landing a manned spacecraft on the surface of either would be very different than what it would be to land on our moon. However, with a lack of atmosphere comes no air nor air pressure, meaning that the spacecraft and EVA equipment wouldn't have to be specially designed to withstand any more pressure than what it would flying in empty space, like an astronaut with an MMU, which could make a landing on one of Mars's moons a bit more possible. Furthermore, landing on one of the moons would be like flying regularly in space, due to the lack of gravity. Mars's gravitational pull would not be strong enough to actually pull the spacecraft from Phobos to Mars, if I am correct, as well. So landing on Phobos or Deimos would be just like landing on a big rock in space.
"But Sweigert, what about space radiation?" This would have to be put into perspective as well. If man were to land on Phobos or Deimos, which is already very unlikely, there would be severe health effects. Observe this graph.
Note that the graph shows data for Mars, not in, basically, free space. However, being so close to Mars, Phobos, for example, which is 5826 (9380 km) miles from Mars, this may not make a difference, although Mars has an atmosphere, unlike Phobos, which may make the data differ on Phobos.
Another challenge could be a launch window. Phobos orbits closely to Mars, while Deimos orbits further away from Mars. Observe this image for a better description!
Finding, none the less, waiting for a perfect launch window can take years. The spacecraft would have to launch from Earth on a perfect track to Mars, while the moon the astronauts would be landing on (Deimos, for example) would have to be on the left a bit. While orbiting Mars, and the spacecraft traveling to what appears to be Mars, Deimos would eventually be in the perfect position for a landing.
OR, the spacecraft could remain in high orbit of Mars, and wait for the moon to drift close to them, and take it from there.
What do you guys think about this? I'm not the smartest when it comes to space yet, so sorry if I provided incorrect or inaccurate information. Of course, man landing on a moon of Mars is very unlikely, I just wanted to share this.
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