The moons of Mars are garnering elevated consideration, not solely as a result of they may present a view of the photo voltaic system’s previous but additionally as a result of they may present invaluable staging areas for any future human settlement on Mars itself. Nonetheless, missions particularly designed to go to Phobos, the larger of the 2 moons, have met with various phases of failure. So why not make a reasonable mission to take action – one that might launch a number of copies of itself if obligatory? That’s the thought behind a CubeSat-based mission to Phobos, generally known as Perseus, which was initially described again in 2020.
Phobos is attention-grabbing for a number of causes, however to this point, we’ve solely gotten comparatively grainy footage of this small moon, whose complete diameter is the scale of a medium-sized metropolis. Most of these footage have come from Mars orbiters, resembling MRO, who sometimes flip their devices on the opposite our bodies within the system. A number of deliberate missions to go to straight, resembling Phobos 1 and a couple of and, extra lately, Phobos Grunt, have failed in area, limiting our understanding of this probably useful moon to secondary scraps from bigger missions.
Enter a brand new mission idea—Perseus (which, surprisingly, seems to not be an acronym for something) is designed as a 27U CubeSat that inherits a number of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) methods utilized in different interplanetary CubeSat missions, together with its personal propulsion system and distant sensing equipment. Relying on the funding the mission receives, it might department into certainly one of two completely different potential interplay types with Phobos.
First, the mission design most well-liked by the mission designers, who primarily come from the College of Arizona and Arizona State College, would contain capturing Perseus in a co-orbit with Mars and Phobos. This is able to permit the CubeSat to go by the moon on daily basis, with a few 6-minute encounter time. This is able to permit Perseus to seize a number of photos of a number of sides of Phobos, a few of which have by no means been seen earlier than from such a brief vantage level.
The opposite mission idea would put Perseus on a hyperbolic trajectory previous Phobos itself. On this idea, Perseus would solely get a single 2-minute flyby with the moon however might get a lot nearer, and due to this fact larger decision, photos of a selected space it selected to fly by. It might then be flung into the photo voltaic system, ultimately working out of gas. Saving the price of the bigger gas load for the orbital mission idea is the primary purpose for designing the much less scientifically thrilling flyby choice.
With the orbital mission idea, Perseus might gather seen gentle photos of the floor of Phobos all the way down to 5m per pixel and thermal photos of 25 m per one pixel, as its scientific payload would encompass seen gentle and thermal imagers. That’s about 6 occasions higher in seen gentle than the 30 m / pixel, which is the perfect data we have now from a picture from HiRISE on the Mar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
That stage of decision might additional discover some options of Phobos, such because the “grooves” that dominate its floor. Moreover, Perseus might scout potential touchdown websites for future human missions to arrange for a go to to the Purple Planet.
Nonetheless, the actual good thing about Perseus is that it’s comparatively low cost. Whereas comparatively giant by CubeSat requirements at 54 kg and a 27U configuration, many parts’ flight heritage means it will be comparatively low cost to assemble and take a look at. Nonetheless, the mission has not been granted any funding to this point, and a short literature search doesn’t present any extra work on the challenge within the final a number of years. However, it suits effectively with the pattern in direction of smaller, much less dangerous, and cheaper missions. Possibly sometime, the same one will get the inexperienced gentle, and we are able to lastly begin accumulating some detailed gentle from one of the vital necessary moons within the photo voltaic system.
Study Extra:
Nallapu et al. – Trajectory design of perseus: A cubesat mission idea to Phobos
UT – What May We Study From a Mission to Phobos?
UT – How Mars’ Moon Phobos Captures Our Imaginations
UT – Did An Historical Icy Impactor Create the Martian Moons?
Lead Picture:
Engineering Mannequin of the Perseus Spacecraft.
Credit score – Nallapu et al.
