Should we stop at Phobos before landing on Mars?

Sure, why not?

Does Phobos have ice?

A Mars/Phobos round trip will require resupply near Mars either from earlier missions or from the planet/moon themselves. If you can't pick up supplies on Phobos, you can't get back. That means stopping is harder than going directly for a Mars round trip.

No astronauts can't jump off of Phobos. It has an escape velocity of 25 mph. That would require a 3.32 sec 40 yard dash in a space suit.

http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Mar_Phobos

Deimos would only require a 6.09 sec 40 yard dash. Difficult in low gravity and a space suit but not clearly impossible.

*)&%lksdf278 wrote:

Does Phobos have ice?

A Mars/Phobos round trip will require resupply near Mars either from earlier missions or from the planet/moon themselves. If you can't pick up supplies on Phobos, you can't get back. That means stopping is harder than going directly for a Mars round trip.

No astronauts can't jump off of Phobos. It has an escape velocity of 25 mph. That would require a 3.32 sec 40 yard dash in a space suit.

http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Mar_Phobos

I knew a guy once who assured me that he had a 58" vertical. I wonder how high he could jump off of Phobos. Maybe he could enter orbit.

I New A Guy wrote:

*)&%lksdf278 wrote:

Does Phobos have ice?

A Mars/Phobos round trip will require resupply near Mars either from earlier missions or from the planet/moon themselves. If you can't pick up supplies on Phobos, you can't get back. That means stopping is harder than going directly for a Mars round trip.

No astronauts can't jump off of Phobos. It has an escape velocity of 25 mph. That would require a 3.32 sec 40 yard dash in a space suit.

http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Mar_Phobos

I knew a guy once who assured me that he had a 58" vertical. I wonder how high he could jump off of Phobos. Maybe he could enter orbit.

His 58'' vertical was from Phobos. Doubt he had ever been there, so he was probably just giving out an estimate from a conversion chart. 58'' vert on Phobos is not very good as well.

Back on topic, we should not stop on Phobos because it will not capture the nation's attention like Mars would. And, like, we've already been on a moon, our own Moon. So, let's go for a new planet. UNLESS - we find any evidence of life on Phobos, then let's go and bring back an alien.

Why don't we fund universal pre-k instead of these pointless excursions in space

Stay home wrote:

Why don't we fund universal pre-k instead of these pointless excursions in space

Indeed! Is basic logic taught in universal pre-k?

Stay home wrote:

Why don't we fund universal pre-k instead of these pointless excursions in space

Presumably you meant that as a joke. Otherwise it would appear that you are saying that we should never explore anything until all human problems are solved first.

Yes, let's basically go back to the stone age because:

a) We don't have universal pre-k

b) We don't have universal health care

c) There are some people starving somewhere

d) Wars happen

e) Other shit

Makes sense to me!

If you go to another planet, find life and bring it back, it will destroy us all. Look what happened to the Europeans when they found America. They all wasted away with the pustulent oozing scabs and creeping insanity of syphilis.

Those wigs they wore for hundreds of years was all to hide their disgusting smelly syphilis scabs.

Is she hot?

Bad Wigins wrote:

If you go to another planet, find life and bring it back, it will destroy us all. Look what happened to the Europeans when they found America. They all wasted away with the pustulent oozing scabs and creeping insanity of syphilis.

Those wigs they wore for hundreds of years was all to hide their disgusting smelly syphilis scabs.

Sounds nasty.

Bad Wigins wrote:

If you go to another planet, find life and bring it back, it will destroy us all. Look what happened to the Europeans when they found America. They all wasted away with the pustulent oozing scabs and creeping insanity of syphilis.

Those wigs they wore for hundreds of years was all to hide their disgusting smelly syphilis scabs.

Pics?

There are legitimate reasons to land humans on Phobos prior to Mars though Phobos is not the permanent destination.

Long story short, if we are to start a human colony on Mars, then it would be wise to send some robots there first capable of doing a lot of the groundwork.

Think of a souped-up version of the Curiosity Rover that is current there. These would be largely to do some heavy duty construction work so that the first humans to land on Mars don't have to start their colony from scratch.

Anyway...these construction bots would not be independent, they would be run by humans, remotely. A project of this scoop could not be controlled from Earth, however, because there is anywhere from a 4 to 20 minute lag in Earth-Mars communication depending on the relative position of the two planets.

So, we would need a human crew to be in the vicinity. Staying in orbit means there is no gravity at all, which is not ideal for the astronauts, especially considering the time they would already have spent in zero-G on the flight to Mars. Phobos is very close to Mars, the closest moon to a planet that we know of, so it would have a very short communication lag. It also orbits Mars quickly so it is a good point to have a base to monitor/observe a large chunk of the surface in a small time scale.

Since Phobos has a small escape velocity as previously mentioned in this post, it would not take much for the human crew to blast back off of it and into space to return to Earth.

Possibly we could send a crew to Mars to oversee the initial construction of a Mars base from a temporary home on Phobos. This crew would return to Earth and further missions would continue the construction and eventual settlement. Mars gravity is a lot higher than Phobos, or even our own Moon, so it would take a pretty sophisticated spaceship that could blast off from Earth, land on Mars and then blast back off of Mars and return to Earth.

That's why most of the current plans assume that the first humans to settle on Mars will not be coming back. Eventually two way travel could be developed, but the first crew will likely be flying on a one-way ticket.

Are you really a Phobosian scholar? That is WAY cool!

I knew I missed my calling.

I can assure you that "Phobosian Scholar" is exactly what he claims to be. I recognized the awkward prose of my greatest rival by the third sentence. I can also assure you that he is dead wrong! Deimos ftw! If we time things right, we can have a base of the smaller Martian moon that will be in direct sunlight for ten straight months. Solar power has huge advantages in just this sort of mission that we cannot afford to throw away.

What's your take on the Ceres lights?

I think we should cut payroll taxes before landing on Mars.

ryan foreman wrote:

I think we should cut payroll taxes before landing on Mars.

Good point.

Also, we should drastically improve the recipe for Twinkies. Have you tried those things since you were a kid? Nasty!

What the heck is the point of going to Mars if we can't even make a good Twinkie here on Earth?

Phobosian Scholar wrote:

That's why most of the current plans assume that the first humans to settle on Mars will not be coming back. Eventually two way travel could be developed, but the first crew will likely be flying on a one-way ticket.

How long would the pro life v. pro choice debate drag on over this idea?