2 ms·
> I suspect walking on it would be an exercise in tedium as you took a step and waited while you floated back down to the surface. With a surface gravity of 0.
by ansible 3y ago
> I suspect walking on it would be an exercise in tedium as you took a step and waited while you floated back down to the surface.
With a surface gravity of 0.003 m/s, even slight twitches by an astronaut would be enough to launch off the surface.
The flip side of that is a sample-return mission (as with OSIRIS-REx) could work with a similar mechanism and manuvering. Though obviously more delta-V is required to get into and get out of Mars orbit.
- kzrdude 3y agoAny mission visiting would be in danger of perturbing the moon's orbit by shooting off from it, to go home, maybe? I wonder how space agencies would think about that.
- ansible 3y agoI don't think that's a concern. The DART mission was able to alter the orbit of Dimorphos, but that asteroid is only 160 meters in diameter, much smaller than Deimos at 12.4km (mean diameter, it is oblong). Mass wise, we're talking about Deimos at 1.5x10^15 kg, vs Dimorphos at 5x10^9 kg.