New Mars Forums

Thanks. 8)

I had a look through that PDF and there's some interesting stuff there.

However, I'm still curious about the exact geological properties of Phobos and the specific types of materials it holds. I'm a little confused, as some articles seem to imply there's little incentive to go there - other than perhaps to establish a refueling station - whilst others (such as the one you've posted) imply there are huge amounts of valuable metal that could be extracted.

From what I understand, Phobos is similar to a C-type asteroid (?). There's a layer of loose regolith and dust around 10-100m thick covering the surface. Below this are volatiles and possibly water/ice, contained within veins and pockets throughout the interior, making Phobos a somewhat porous body with relatively low density.

But what, then, about the actual metals and minerals? I thought C-type asteroids didn't have much valuable metal and therefore wouldn't be very profitable? I've heard silicon mentioned but what else? And how could these be extracted? Sorry if I'm sounding a bit confused here...

It would have to be a massive dome! About 25 times bigger than the Millenium Dome here in London. I can't see that happening for at least a couple of centuries. My novel takes place between 2050 and 2200, so maybe I could incorporate this idea into the later chapters.

As I explained above though, my problem right now is figuring out the earliest stages of the novel and the moon's value in terms of initial gathering of resources, the establishment of operations there, etc. Once I've got this figured out, the large-scale infrastructure and hi-tech projects should be quite easy to describe.

Again, I could incorporate something like this into the later stages of my novel. Thanks for the link.

I actually started reading that recently. It's pretty complicated though and a bit hard-going in places. Although well-written and informative, it's not something that's easy to "dip into".

Thanks. 8)

It just so happens that I've read the entire trilogy - and they were my favourite books of all time! It's been nearly 10 years since I read them though, and I can't remember many of the specific details about Phobos. I remember the Space Elevator and what eventually happens to it, but that's about it.