The Phobos Space Station?

Originally posted by sapien82
Well it would seem that MEX presents further data that Phobos has large internal voids !

General , Science 25 March, 2010 17:21
Radio science result from 2008 Phobos Flyby now accepted for publication

I’ve just heard that the technical paper discussing the mass and density of Phobos, as determined during the 2008 flyby, has been accepted by Geophysical Research Letters. The abstract is:


We report independent results from two subgroups of the Mars Express Radio Science (MaRS) team who independently analyzed Mars Express (MEX) radio tracking data for the purpose of determining consistently the gravitational attraction of the moon Phobos on the MEX spacecraft, and hence the mass of Phobos. New values for the gravitational parameter (GM=0.7127 ± 0.0021 x 10-³ km³/s²) and density of Phobos (1876 ± 20 kg/m³) provide meaningful new constraints on the corresponding range of the body's porosity (30% ± 5%), provide a basis for improved interpretation of the internal structure. We conclude that the interior of Phobos likely contains large voids. When applied to various hypotheses bearing on the origin of Phobos, these results are inconsistent with the proposition that Phobos is a captured asteroid.

If you are a subscriber to the journal, you can access the full paper here.



For a less technical treatment, see the piece I wrote for New Scientist, where some of the authors talk about this work in the section under the 'Space oddity' heading.

-- Stuart



(Click on 'Full story' for full GRL journal reference).





The full reference in GRL will be:



Andert, T. P., P. Rosenblatt, M. Pätzold, B. Hausler, V. Dehant, G.L. Tyler, and J. C. Marty (2010), Precise Mass Determination and the Nature of Phobos, Geophys. Res. Lett., doi:10.1029/2009GL041829, in press. (accepted 22 March 2010)

well well ,this is getting really interesting, especially the part of large voids inside and this:

"When applied to various hypotheses bearing on the origin of Phobos, these results are inconsistent with the proposition that Phobos is a captured asteroid"


we are living interesting times my friends
damn wish i could just build a rocket and take a looksee close up
Cheers!

I remember something about both Phobos and Deimos disappearing, but I didn't find anything about this on a search. I can't remember if this was nothing but an urban legend, or something reported by a legitimate source. Mentally, I wrote it off as a legend, but the possibility still lingers.

The evidence is pretty solid, , that Phobos has either large hollow chambers or is very porous. When the huge crater on Phobos is considered, this points away from the concept that Phobos is a captured satellite, as well as the strange orbit of Phobos. I still think the best concept is that Phobos is a result of a massive volcanic eruption, one that maybe completely changed the planetary mechanics of Mars.

I don't know if anyone followed the link I found and posted of the theory that Mars had a massive eruption where a large portion of the planet's mass was ejected into space, but it was an interesting page, and not a bad theory IMO.

But, hey, I don't think planetary duck blind is all that inconceivable.