HomeWhat's next for Phobos exploration?
With today's flyby at 12:17 UTC (13:17 CET), the current Phobos flyby campaign will be complete.
Given the present polar and elliptical orbit of Mars Express (meaning that it orbits over the Red Planet's North and South poles and varies in altitude from fairly close to quite far away), and the near-circular and equatorial orbit of Phobos, encounters between the bodies can be expected every five months. However, the number of flybys, the geometry and the closest distances are always different.
The current campaign was unique: It stands out with a total of 12 fly-bys (more than any campaign before) and a minimum approach distance of 77 km from the centre of the moon, which corresponds to approx. 67 km from the surface (the closest flyby of any spacecraft to date).
So, what about the next campaigns? Let's look ahead to the next two flyby 'seasons.'
The next one will come in August 2010, with nine flybys within 1200 km from Phobos. The closest approach will be about 403 km over Phobos' night side, on 24 August 2010. Then, between December 2010 and January 2011, 10 flybys are planned, with the closest one coming within 96 km of the moon's dayside, on 9 January 2011. (This is, by the way, roughly four weeks before Mars passes behind the Sun (as seen from Earth), and only a few days before Mars Express science operations will stop for approximately 6 weeks due to this so-called 'Solar conjunction'.)
Quite interesting observations can be made from such distances indeed! The powerful cameras, spectrometers and other instruments on Mars Express can glean amazing details; repeated flybys will augment coverage of the surface of Phobos, help confirm or improve previous findings, complement existing data sets, and possibly even make new discoveries.
So we hope you'll stay with us as we set out to explore this mysterious, small world even further. This month's closest-ever flyby lies behind us, but the excitement is far from over. On the contrary, it has only just begun!
- Hannes Griebel and Olivier Witassse
22-04-2010 • 00:18:10
A close pass of Deimos is not possible. I had already asked about that. Mars Express does not have the fuel margins necessary.
A close Deimos pass is certainly very scientifically justifiable, perhaps following Phobos-Grunt, Deimos-Gulliver may be resurrected. One can hope.
When are all the images, radar data & gravity data going to be made available?
Love what has been released thus far though.
29-03-2010 • 16:05:03
What about second moon of Mars, Deimos? Is there any chance that Mars Express will flyby near it?
31-03-2010 • 21:24:08
The orbit of Phobos is (approximately) 9230km in radius with tiny eccentricity, and Mars Express crosses this orbit. (As the blog posting says.) The orbit of Deimos is 23460km in radius with even lower eccentricity.
The article implies that a 1200km approach is a "close approach" (what is the criterion for a close approach? I don't know. Perhaps when the moon would subtend more than a couple of pixels in the camera, or achieve a measurable disc?), so I can't see how Mars Express could make a "close approach" to Deimos without having it's orbit changed substantially. Whether the spacecraft has the fuel reserve to achieve such an orbital change, I don't know. But even if the reserve existed, I can't see it being used this way until the main part of the mission is completed.
This does raise one question : what are the disposal plan for Mars Express? The Galileo probe was planted into Jupiter to prevent it from accidentally contaminating Europa with bacteria. Was Mars Express sterilised before launch, or is there a clean-up plan for mission end?
27-03-2010 • 00:49:27
Is it just me or does anyone else think this is totally amazing ! :D