Mining Phobos

Phobos
[Greek, fear, deity who personifies fear]


What does everyone think the parallel lines are caused from in this photo?

maybe from gravity?

What is on Phobos that we cant get from somewhere else?

I suppose mining it would be good if for when we start depleting are own resources.

Originally posted by Murcielago
maybe from gravity?

What is on Phobos that we cant get from somewhere else?

Would you explain the gravity theory?

Here are some facts on phobos to get the biochemical brain juices flowing.

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Of all the moons in the solar system, the one with the closest orbit is Phobos, the larger of the two satellites of Mars. The orbit of Phobos is less than 6000 kilometers above the surface of the planet (3700 miles).
Phobos is an irregularly shaped chunk of rock and ice about 27 kilometers long (17 miles). Because its orbit is so low, it can only be seen from a limited strip of the planet near its orbital path. Seen from that strip, it crosses the sky quickly from west to east, twice a day.
Phobos' orbit is so low that tidal forces are pulling it closer and closer to Mars. Scientists expect that in about 50 million years it will either crash into the planet or break up into a thin ring of orbiting debris.

Phobos is getting closer to Mars at the rate of 6 feet (1.8 meters) every 100 years.
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An impact long ago left a big crater on Phobos -- 6 miles (10 kilometers) wide -- called Stickney.
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Phobos has a thick layer of regolith, or dust and rock. It is thought to be up to 330 feet (100 meters) thick.
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Scientists say that when the Sun shines on Phobos, the temperature is not unlike a pleasant winter day in Chicago. But just around the corner, on the dark side of the tiny moon, the thermometer can plunge to an extreme Arctic minus 170 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 112 Celsius).
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Orbital period: 7 hours, 39 minutes
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Phobos is irregular in shape, measuring 17 by 14 by 12 miles (28 by 23 by 20 km)
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Now, picture the moon in 3d time/space orbiting Mars. Now try to picture what would cause these lines. Anyone?

No, it was an out-of-the-blue guess. which now thinking more on the subject, I dont know what could of caused them, if you look close you can tell that they havn't allways being there, because some craters obliverate the groove (line) while the groove goes on top of some of the older impacts.

I did a little looking into it and the answer is, no one knows. Nasa and ESA are studing the pics and doing simulations to see how this could happen, but eh answer that they are leaning towars if that they were caused by the BIG impact that it has (the biggest impact on the moon is huge, I read a thing about it once and if the object that hit it was any bigger there wouldn't be a phobos).

But I am for going there to check it out, and see if any exotic materials are there that we can mine and use, because its now or never, because in 200 years Phobos (like all the rest of Mars' moons) will smack into Mars.

[edit on 24-11-2004 by Murcielago]

Waiting for BLEYS Geologist friend to give us an opinion when I asked this question last week..BLEYS?


My guess is shockwaves due to large impacts as well.

MY second guess, is that it came from a much LARGER body, which had enough gravity to sort things into layers. And were just looking at a small piece of it, in cross section.

Good observation Murcielago.

We can then surmise that the lines are pretty recent in astrological terms. But still not too recent in human terms.

There's one initial problem I see with the "gravity shock waves" theory. The moon looks like a potato. Which means that it's rotation on it's axis would be irregular. How likely would it be that near perfect parallel lines could be formed by gravity with an irregular rotation (compared to a sphere)?

Originally posted by spacedoubt

Waiting for BLEYS Geologist friend to give us an opinion when I asked this question last week..BLEYS?


My guess is shockwaves due to large impacts as well.

MY second guess, is that it came from a much LARGER body, which had enough gravity to sort things into layers. And were just looking at a small piece of it, in cross section.

Excellent. I would certainly like to hear the going theory.

For your second guess, are you saying that it is a chunk from a larger body? And the larger body formed the lines while the moon was still part of it?

Only issue I see with that currently is there are craters that formed before (under) the lines. I can't readily see how the "crater" impressions could form while still attached to it's parent. If the lines did occur through some split in a large body then all the craters would obliterate the lines.

[edit on 11-24-2004 by ShadowHasNoSource]

Shadowhasnosource,

Well, It's more like this.


And Remember, this is my second choice
If the Asteroid belt was formed of an obliterated Planet, This moon could have come from that source. The Obliteration of a Planet would also leave millions of debris pieces, small and large..
Some of which could have created the impact craters all over Phobos, over time. Phobos, and Diemos eventually ended up as the Temporary Moons of Mars..

On another note, It's interesting that Phobos is slowly spiraling IN towards MARS, and OUR Moon, is slowly Spiraling AWAY from Earth..I wonder if these facts, are signatures of Thier history...e.g. Our moon being formed from the Earth, and Mars' Moon being Captured..

We'll probally be mining other planets, our Moon and asteroids soon, but who knows what will happen to us in the future, apart from people with a time machine...

Originally posted by spacedoubt
Shadowhasnosource,

Well, It's more like this.


And Remember, this is my second choice

If the Asteroid belt was formed of an obliterated Planet, This moon could have come from that source. The Obliteration of a Planet would also leave millions of debris pieces, small and large..
Some of which could have created the impact craters all over Phobos, over time. Phobos, and Diemos eventually ended up as the Temporary Moons of Mars..

On another note, It's interesting that Phobos is slowly spiraling IN towards MARS, and OUR Moon, is slowly Spiraling AWAY from Earth..I wonder if these facts, are signatures of Thier history...e.g. Our moon being formed from the Earth, and Mars' Moon being Captured..

We could look for pictures of other astroids and see if we can find any that match. Proverbial needle in a haystack. Still can't picture how these lines came to be. First glance it looks like rocks just slid around the thing at high speed.

On another note, that's an interesting observation about lunar orbit phenomenon vs lunar origin.

Russia apparently wants to get some "Firsts", the US and know Europe are going all the space "firsts", But Russia says they are planning to send a probe to Phobos around 2009.

Russia - will be a first probe fully focused on Phobos