All About Space Astronomer Book - 2014 UK

via a Deimos base, with a short hop down to the surface of Mars. Only time

will tell.

Imaging Mars

Mars is a fascinating world to image. The most obvious features are the

contrasting light sandy regions representing the deserts of Mars and the

unprotected, bombarded by all kinds of radiation. No one could stand up

to that, as far as we know. No doubt there is a cure for this and some kind

of radiation screen will be devised. So far we have no idea how that can be

done. Until we solve the radiation problem, we believe Mars is currently out

of our reach. Mars has two moons, Phobos and Deimos, discovered by the

US astronomer Asaph Hall in 1887. Both are very small, Phobos less than

20 miles in diameter and Deimos less than 10. Almost certainly they are

captured asteroids from the main belt moving round the Sun beyond the

path of Mars.The Martian day is just over half an hour longer than ours, but

the Martian year is equal to 687 Earth days, equating to 686 Mars days, or

sols. The seasons are the same basic type as ours though much longer.

We have one idea at this point. Phobos and Deimos make magnificent

natural space stations. So small they have almost no gravitational pull, so

landing and takeoff would be easy. The first journey to Mars might well be

[6] Mars Rover Spirit on the

surface of the Red Planet,

looking towards Husband Hill

(NASA/JPL/Cornell).

[7], [8] & [9] Images of Mars captured

using the imaging technique described

here. A 14-inch SCT telescope was used

throughout.

6

7

8 9

Astronomer Book