Mars is a world that has captivated the minds of humanity for thousands of years. While it is not known whether or not this world harbors any resources, this rusty world, after the Moon, will probably become humanity's first test on whether or not we can survive off world.
But before humanity can conquer the red planet, they need a cost-effective way to transport food, passengers and supplies towards its surface. Hosting as well as launching large shuttles on the planet's surface may become burdensome and expensive, especially when one considers the effect of red dust upon mechanical devices.
What Martian colonists need is an inexpensive way to transport goods from the surface to space, and what better way could they obtain this than by turning the Martian moons into space stations?
The Martian moons Phobos and Deimos orbit about 6,000 and 14,500 miles from the surface, respectively, and would lie within easy reach for smaller space craft (especially with Martian gravity being only 38 percent of Earth's).
Although launch pads hosting large rockets may look appealing on Earth, they would probably be considered a waste on the red planet. Launch pads hosting large rockets would not only have to be constantly cleaned of the red dust, but be enclosed within a powerful warehouse capable of surviving Martian tornadoes. It would be much easier to host smaller shuttle craft that could rendezvous with a larger ship via a space station than launching these massive vessels from the surface.
Despite being composed of carbonaceous rock, the orbital periods of the moons make them prime real estate. Phobos orbits Mars about every 7 1/2 hours while Deimos is just over 30, making them accessible (at least with Phobos) several times a day. If constructed properly, larger ships could simply dock near or inside the asteroids and simply await smaller shuttles to transport the necessary goods or passengers to and from the planet.
Article comments
1 - duane
Keeping costs down while thriving on Mars will be in the best interests of humanity ....
Why? What's to gain?
2 - Darnell (Colony Worlds)
Hey Duane, thanks for stopping by.
Your probably thinking "what's the benefit in going to Mars?" and aside from the "we must expand to other worlds" argument, Mars seems to hold very little finacial value for humanity--thus far.
I wrote a previous article entitled "Mars, is it worth it?" and being a Martian critic I think I may have answered that question by finding a (potential) resource that may have been over looked on the red planet.
I'm in the process of writing that up (among others) but give me time and I'll answer it as soon as its up.
3 - ralph a. kern
Sir;
with the growing population, we need new places to live now and it will be worse in the future, especially with the present govt.s penchant for population control so the quicker we get colonies up there, the better. God bless...