Yes, lots of advantages
As the closest moon to Mars it's the one that is expected to have the greatest concentration of material from Mars itself - including material from Early Mars. Quite a high percentage, I'll look it up to check. In some ways could be as interesting as searching for evidence of ancient Mars on the planet itself.
It's also the easiest place to return a sample from - Deimos or Phobos.
And - there is probably less by way of planetary protection issues. COSPAR categorized it as unrestricted category V for sample return, though Russia planned to deal with the sample with some care anyway.
The thing is, any life there would be sterilized unless it got there within the last million years or so, or unless it is deep below the surface.
A recent study showed that perhaps 0.025% of the material in the Phobos regolith might be Martian in origin, some of it from the earl solar system. There is also a chance of larger meteorite fragments from Mars, in similar numbers to lunar meteorites on Earth. (Original paper: Mars impact ejecta in the regolith of Phobos: Bulk concentration and distribution)
As reported by Purdue university in 2012, Evidence of life on Mars could come from Martian moon
Russia of course has already attempted a sample return from Phobos, but failed and has a long term special interest in it.
I think myself, that it might be worth COSPAR re-examining the classification, because we now know there are numerous recent impacts on Mars, and maybe some of the larger ones could have sent traces of life to Phobos.
Anyway - whatever the answer there - I think myself - though not nearly the likelihood of risk of Mars - still - maybe we should return it to a telerobotic facility in high orbit or above GEO orbit around Earth first rather than direct to Earth - but it's surely interesting.
For more about this see Why Phobos Might be the Best Place to go for a Sample Return from Mars Right Now
But it's also, along with Deimos, a great place to use as a base to explore Mars via telepresence.
From my article To Explore Mars With Likes Of Occulus Rift & Virtuix Omni - From Mars Capture Orbit, Phobos Or Deimos:
There are two major advantages of Phobos,
This artist's impression is for Deimos, but Phobos is similar.
Deimos has many advantages over Phobos, and may be the first to have a human visit if we send humans to Mars as it also has somewhat less delta v to get to it. But Phobos has advantages also and both deserve thorough exploration as well as both being good bases to use for telerobotic exploration of Mars, they may complement each other well also, e.g. often parts of Mars would be in direct line of communication for one Moon while they are the other side of the planet from the other one.
Phobos with a shorter orbit means you see each bit of Mars more often. It also orbits faster than Mars' rotation period. So from the surface of Mars, Deimos and Phobos appear to be moving in opposite directions. With Deimos moving very slowly with its 30 hour orbit not that different from the Martian sol, so it is more like our Moon. While Phobos, moving in the opposite direction, zips across the sky several times a day as seen from the surface.
So telepresence from Deimos gives you leisurely observation of one part of Mars at a time. While from Phobos you get many shorter windows of opportunity for just about all of Mars every day. Both let you observe nearly all of Mars except high polar regions regularly.
Russia sent a couple of missions to study it from orbit around Mars, the first failed, second returned many images Phobos program
Then it tried again with its Fobos-Grunt with the aim to return a small sample from Phobos to Earth, but it failed during launch from Earth.
Then - Lockheed Martin in their "Stepping Stones to Mars" proposed either Phobos or Deimos as a natural future destination before Mars.
In the near future, there's Phobos Surveyor and Phobos And Deimos & Mars Environment as proposed NASA missions, but at this stage they often get rejected, several have already, so best not count too much on that.
Russia expect to repeat Fobos-Grunt in a proposed Phobos-Grunt-2
That's perhaps the most definite of all near future proposals, especially given Russia's long term interest in Phobos as the only country to date to send spacecraft particularly to Phobos as the destination.
Other ideas and proposals listed here: Phobos (moon)
If we ever get sustained interest in human missions to Mars, Phobos and Deimos are natural targets, Easier to get to than the surface especially if you want to get back. And without the "seven minutes of terror" - as with Rosetta + Philae your main issue is that your spacecraft could bounce away when landed, not that it would crash on the surface. Would land at a gentle walking pace speed of approach. But enough gravity to hold it in place once landed.
More about this:
To Explore Mars With Likes Of Occulus Rift & Virtuix Omni - From Mars Capture Orbit, Phobos Or Deimos
As the closest moon to Mars it's the one that is expected to have the greatest concentration of material from Mars itself - including material from Early Mars. Quite a high percentage, I'll look it up to check. In some ways could be as interesting as searching for evidence of ancient Mars on the planet itself.
It's also the easiest place to return a sample from - Deimos or Phobos.
And - there is probably less by way of planetary protection issues. COSPAR categorized it as unrestricted category V for sample return, though Russia planned to deal with the sample with some care anyway.
The thing is, any life there would be sterilized unless it got there within the last million years or so, or unless it is deep below the surface.
A recent study showed that perhaps 0.025% of the material in the Phobos regolith might be Martian in origin, some of it from the earl solar system. There is also a chance of larger meteorite fragments from Mars, in similar numbers to lunar meteorites on Earth. (Original paper: Mars impact ejecta in the regolith of Phobos: Bulk concentration and distribution)
A sample-return mission to Phobos would return material both from Phobos and from Mars.Credit: NASA
Shows trajectories of debris from an impact on Mars and the orbits of Mars's two moon's, Phobos (innermost moon) and Deimos
As reported by Purdue university in 2012, Evidence of life on Mars could come from Martian moon
"The team concluded that a 200-gram sample scooped from the surface of Phobos could contain, on average, about one-tenth of a milligram of Mars surface material launched in the past 10 million years and 50 billion individual particles from Mars. The same sample could contain as much as 50 milligrams of Mars surface material from the past 3.5 billion years.
"'The time frames are important because it is thought that after 10 million years of exposure to the high levels of radiation on Phobos, any biologically active material would be destroyed," Howell said. "Of course older Martian material would still be rich with information, but there would be much less concern about bringing a viable organism back to Earth and necessary quarantine measures.'"
Russia of course has already attempted a sample return from Phobos, but failed and has a long term special interest in it.
I think myself, that it might be worth COSPAR re-examining the classification, because we now know there are numerous recent impacts on Mars, and maybe some of the larger ones could have sent traces of life to Phobos.
Anyway - whatever the answer there - I think myself - though not nearly the likelihood of risk of Mars - still - maybe we should return it to a telerobotic facility in high orbit or above GEO orbit around Earth first rather than direct to Earth - but it's surely interesting.
For more about this see Why Phobos Might be the Best Place to go for a Sample Return from Mars Right Now
But it's also, along with Deimos, a great place to use as a base to explore Mars via telepresence.
From my article To Explore Mars With Likes Of Occulus Rift & Virtuix Omni - From Mars Capture Orbit, Phobos Or Deimos:
ADVANTAGES OF PHOBOS
There are two major advantages of Phobos,
- because it is closer to Mars, it has a two way time delay for telerobotic exploration of only 40 ms, while Deimos has a two way time delay of 134 ms.
- It has a crater, Stickney crater, on the Mars facing side. A party in Stickney crater would be protected from about 90% of cosmic radiation, possibly more. That's because it is protected by the crater walls, Phobos, and Mars itself which is overhead. It is one of the places in the inner solar system most protected from cosmic radiation, even more so than the poles of the Moon. Only the lunar caves and Martian caves are more protected from cosmic radiation - or the high Venus cloud decks (and of course, Earth itself).
Stickney crater on Phobos. This large crater faces towards Mars. A base sited here would be protected from solar storms, and also from cosmic radiation. It's blocked by Mars overhead, Phobos below and the crater rim to all sides, and so gets only 10% of the cosmic radiation of an unprotected base.
This artist's impression is for Deimos, but Phobos is similar.
Deimos has many advantages over Phobos, and may be the first to have a human visit if we send humans to Mars as it also has somewhat less delta v to get to it. But Phobos has advantages also and both deserve thorough exploration as well as both being good bases to use for telerobotic exploration of Mars, they may complement each other well also, e.g. often parts of Mars would be in direct line of communication for one Moon while they are the other side of the planet from the other one.
Phobos with a shorter orbit means you see each bit of Mars more often. It also orbits faster than Mars' rotation period. So from the surface of Mars, Deimos and Phobos appear to be moving in opposite directions. With Deimos moving very slowly with its 30 hour orbit not that different from the Martian sol, so it is more like our Moon. While Phobos, moving in the opposite direction, zips across the sky several times a day as seen from the surface.
So telepresence from Deimos gives you leisurely observation of one part of Mars at a time. While from Phobos you get many shorter windows of opportunity for just about all of Mars every day. Both let you observe nearly all of Mars except high polar regions regularly.
PAST AND PROPOSED FUTURE MISSIONS TO PHOBOS
Russia sent a couple of missions to study it from orbit around Mars, the first failed, second returned many images Phobos program
Then it tried again with its Fobos-Grunt with the aim to return a small sample from Phobos to Earth, but it failed during launch from Earth.
Then - Lockheed Martin in their "Stepping Stones to Mars" proposed either Phobos or Deimos as a natural future destination before Mars.
In the near future, there's Phobos Surveyor and Phobos And Deimos & Mars Environment as proposed NASA missions, but at this stage they often get rejected, several have already, so best not count too much on that.
Russia expect to repeat Fobos-Grunt in a proposed Phobos-Grunt-2
That's perhaps the most definite of all near future proposals, especially given Russia's long term interest in Phobos as the only country to date to send spacecraft particularly to Phobos as the destination.
Other ideas and proposals listed here: Phobos (moon)
If we ever get sustained interest in human missions to Mars, Phobos and Deimos are natural targets, Easier to get to than the surface especially if you want to get back. And without the "seven minutes of terror" - as with Rosetta + Philae your main issue is that your spacecraft could bounce away when landed, not that it would crash on the surface. Would land at a gentle walking pace speed of approach. But enough gravity to hold it in place once landed.
More about this:
To Explore Mars With Likes Of Occulus Rift & Virtuix Omni - From Mars Capture Orbit, Phobos Or Deimos
About the Author
Robert Walker
Writer of articles on Mars and Space issues - Software Developer of Tune Smithy, Bounce Metronome etc.Studied at Wolfson College, Oxford
Lives in Isle of Mull
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