Singer_2012

Copyright © 2012 by S. Fred Singer. Published by the Mars Society with permission.

Manned Space Goals: Science and Adventure
TO MARS VIA ITS MOON DEIMOS

S. Fred Singer

Prof. Emeritus, U. Virginia

Former Director, US Weather Satellite Service

singer@sepp.org

ABSTRACT

Phobos and Deimos were discovered in Washington, DC in 1870 to be in nearly circular equatorial orbits at 2.8 and 7.2 Mars radius, respectively. Deimos is in a nearly synchronous orbit around Mars, making it an ideal human base with low gravity and escape velocity. Both moons are cheap sources for raw materials for space construction compared to the Moon or asteroid belt sources. A far less expensive focus of NASA missions to the Martian Moons rather than Mars is proposed.