HUMAN EXPLORATION ON PHOBOS & DEIMOS
- Paper number
IAC-08.B3.5.8
- Author
Mr. CHIRAGKUMAR TALA, United States
- Coauthor
Mr. ASHISH MISTRY, SARDAR VALLBHBHAI INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY , GUJARAT UNIVERSITY, India
- Coauthor
Mr. HARIRAM MISTRY, MISTRY CONSTRUCTION CO., India
- Year
2008
- Abstract
There is no object in the solar system or Universe that is not worth studying, but those moons suffer from being so , close to such an interesting planet, and they've always taken a backseat. What are the benefits of utilizing Phobos and/or Deimos in this evolutionary approach to Mars exploration? Phobos and Deimos would be interesting to study in and of their own rights. Both moons are thought to be as-teroids nudged into the inner solar system by Jupiter and captured by Mars. Their low densities (< 2 g/cm3) suggest that Phobos and Deimos may be a mixture of rock and ice. Following are the activities carried out on Phobos & Deimos: Conduct remote teleoperation & naviga-tion/communication: Phobos or Deimos would also provide a vantage point to conduct remote teleopera-tion of robitic vehicles on the Mars suface. Future ex-ploration of the surface of Mars will likely require navigation/communications infrastructure to be built in the vicinity of the planet. Placing beacons/relays on the moons (rather than on Mars’s surface) would avoid problems associated with dust storms and pro-vide science assets . Transportation system space-elevators: The approach would take advantage of the unique configuration of Mars and its moon Phobos to make a transportation system capable of raising mass from the surface of Mars to space at a low cost. Mars would be used as the primary location for support personnel and infrastruc-ture. Phobos would be used as a source of raw mate-rials for space-based activity, and as an anchor for tethered carbon-nanotube-based space-elevators. This approach would allow Mars to be colonized, and allow transportation of people and supplies from Mars to support the space industry. Make Deimos a Space Port: From the relatively safe perch (Deimos) high above the Red Planet, the crew would send robotic probes to the surface of Mars and control them in real-time. And instead of enduring months of red dust on the harsh Martian surface, a small team could make a quick weekend sortie to the surface to do those things only humans can do. It's cheaper, faster, sooner & safer. Get more information about Mars by exploring it from Deimos than by land-ing on the surface. For one thing, the scheme would avoid the need to build a costly Mars base, required to shield the crew from deadly radiation. And sidling a large spacecraft up to a low-gravity moon is a lot less costly than setting down on Mars. Refueling stop at Phobos or Deimos: An ability to refuel the Earth-return vehicle in Mars orbit would be a huge asset. Mars has two small moons, Phobos and Deimos, that some scientists and engineers have hoped might be a source of fuel for the return trip from Mars. Rocket fuel for a ferrying space-craft could be produced by breaking down water into hydrogen and oxygen. Mining on Phobos & Deimos: It is more likely that Phobos & Deimos mining would be used to support space exploration, i.e., space stations or even a mars base. The most useful material for these applications would likely be water, extracted .Water would be used to make hydrogen and oxygen rocket propellants, and water and oxygen would be useful for life support in space habitats. Miners on moons of mars would use techniques similar to those used on Earth. The most likely method would be to scrape desired material off and tunnel into veins of specific substances. Scraping, or strip mining, will pull out valuable ore that will float off the moons. Because much of the ore will fly off, a large canopy might be used to collect it. All this activities done on Phobos & Deimos for the benefit of mankind.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
(absent)