Raziel Anarki Posted November 9, 2007 According to NASA scientists, the next planetary body visited by humans in our solar system could be one of Mars' tiny moons: Phobos. "They are the most accessible planetary bodies in our solar system," said Pascal Lee of the Mars Institute (...) "It's counterintuitive, but they're even easier to get to than Earth's Moon (...)" The reason for this is that for reaching the Moon, which is much larger (and bears a stronger gravitational pull) a landing spacecraft would need to fire its retro-rockets for landing, and taking off -- wasting tonnes of precious fuel. However this is not the case with Phobos and Deimos, as they are very small with Phobos being only 10km wide and Deimos being 6km in size. An article over at NewScientist details the aspects of such manned (and unmanned) missions, stating that mankind could set its foot on the moon's surface within ten years. Let's just hope that NASA is not into interdimensional travel yet. 0 Share this post Link to post
kristus Posted November 10, 2007 Doesn't this belong in "Everything Else"? 0 Share this post Link to post
Bloodshedder Posted November 10, 2007 Yeah... I don't think this could quite be stretched on to the front page. 0 Share this post Link to post
Coopersville Posted November 10, 2007 They're probably then safest moons in our galaxy to visit, besides our own. If things mess up, there's handfuls of soul sphere's laying around. 0 Share this post Link to post
deathbringer Posted November 10, 2007 I wouldnt want to set foot on either of those two moons, one "over enthusiastic" step over a rock and you'd reach escape velocity... 0 Share this post Link to post
Snarboo Posted November 10, 2007 If you think Phobos sounds wild, I remember seeing a video on Space.com a while back talking about a manned mission to a comet. They actually made it sound plausible, too. 0 Share this post Link to post
Sharessa Posted November 10, 2007 I remember some sci-fi show where some space marine type guys stopped there and one of them tossed a football which just sailed over the horizon. 0 Share this post Link to post
printz Posted November 10, 2007 deathbringer said:uhhhhhhhhhh I wouldnt want to set foot on either of those two moons, one "over enthusiastic" step over a rock and you'd reach escape velocity... Maybe it's definitely unlikely, but I wouldn't wish any of those moons to reach itself escape velocity. 0 Share this post Link to post
Quasar Posted November 11, 2007 I'm guessing some kind of personal thruster system would be necessary to keep them from flying off into space. Either that or Iron Boots ala Zelda. Though I'm not clear on exactly how heavy they'd need to be to work :P We need to be working on such things anyway if we ever intend to mine the vast resources of the asteroid belt ^_^ 0 Share this post Link to post
John Smith Posted November 11, 2007 Or intend on opening gates to hell. 0 Share this post Link to post
EarthQuake Posted November 12, 2007 I think it would be kinda neat looking up into the sky and seeing nothing but Mars hovering over. Think the light reflected off Mars would give the surface a rusty glow? 0 Share this post Link to post