Phobos First: An Alternative Route to Colonize Mars.
When scientists and entrepreneurs discus the colonization and habitation of Mars they most of the times mention a direct route to Mars. A landing on the surface of Mars with a crew that will prepare a base camp for a larger Martian colony. However there is another route to Mars. The Phobos first scenario, as described by Kordell et al., is safer and there is a route back to Earth in case of emergency or to replace crewmembers.
Until now about 50% of the landing attempts on the surface of Mars have failed. Imagine the first landing attempt of a spacecraft with the first Martian colonist crashing on the surface of Mars. Most likely there will be no survivors, who would volunteer for the next attempt? On the other hand the first crew will probably never return to Earth for the simple reason there won’t be any fuel to return home. The colonization of Mars over Phobos is safer due the extremely weak gravity and has the possibility to return back to Earth by using the rotational force generated by the circulation of Phobos.
Phobos (Pätzold, et al., 2025).
Phobotian Base (Kordell, et al., 2014).
There are two Martian moons, Deimos and Phobos, with Phobos being the largest of the two. Phobos circles approximately 6000 km above the Martian surface taking 7.5 hours to circle the planet (Willner, et al., 2014). A small crew could be stationed on the surface of Phobos complemented with a station circling Mars. The relative short distance from Phobos to the Martian surface would make it possible to use radio controlled robots and 3D printers to build and prepare the Mars base for the first Martian colonists. Another big advantage will be that the Phobotian crew members could return home by using the forces generated by the fast circulation of Phobos around Mars (Kordell, et al., 2014).
In 2017 students from four different universities came with the project Fearless for a Phobos Base Competition. Fearless is the concept of a nuclear powered Phobotian Base located in the Stickney crater. The facility consists of a habitat and Mars obsevatory with a spaceport, landing pads and a mining area with the main facility covered with an protective inflatable dome (Orzechowski, et al., 2017). Both examples of Phobotian bases are nice examples of what a Phobotian base could look like. Combining those designs with knowledge from previous studies of Life Support and Biospherics will result in potential successful designs. .
Fearless (Orzechowski, et al., 2017).