biology

Phobos And Deimos & Mars Environment

Phobos And Deimos & Mars Environment is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Phobos And Deimos & Mars Environment rather than just read about it. In short: Phobos And Deimos & Mars Environment (PADME) is a low-cost NASA Mars orbiter mission concept that would address longstanding unknowns about Mars' two moons Phobos and Deimos and their environment. The PADME mission competed for Discovery Program funding, but lost to the Psyche and Lucy missions.

Key takeaways

Phobos And Deimos & Mars Environment belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Phobos And Deimos & Mars Environment to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Phobos And Deimos & Mars Environment from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Phobos And Deimos & Mars Environment (PADME) is a low-cost NASA Mars orbiter mission concept that would address longstanding unknowns about Mars' two moons Phobos and Deimos and their environment. The PADME mission competed for Discovery Program funding, but lost to the Psyche and Lucy missions. The Principal Investigator is Anthony Colaprete. Other principals include Pascal Lee (Deputy Principal Investigator) and Butler Hine (Project Manager).

Objectives The origin of Mars' moons, which were discovered by astronomer Asaph Hall, remains unknown. PADME would advance the scientific understanding of the origin of Phobos and Deimos by studying:

Composition of surface and near-surface materials Internal structure Dynamics (transport) of surface materials on, and between, Deimos and Phobos. In addition, PADME would assess potential resources (water, organics, regolith) and potential hazards (dust) that Phobos and Deimos might present for future human exploration in Mars orbit.

Mission Once in Mars orbit, PADME would carry out 16 flybys of Phobos followed by 9 flybys of Deimos. Flybys would take place at two-week intervals. Flyby altitudes at closest approach to Phobos and Deimos would be ~2 km. Following completion of its primary mission, PADME could remain in high Mars orbit for long-term monitoring of the martian system and search for potential additional moonlets around Mars. Alternatively, PADME could be made to escape Mars and eventually fly by a Near-Earth Object (NEO).

Spacecraft NASA Ames Research Center would design, develop, build, and test the PADME spacecraft, and manage mission operations. The proposal is to employ the proven Modular Common Spacecraft Bus (MCSB), previously used by the LADEE Moon orbiter. Major partners include the SETI Institute, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, and University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics.

Scientific payload The PADME mission has four science instruments plus a radio science experiment which uses the spacecraft's radio communications system.

Neutron Spectrometer (NS) would count epithermal and thermal neutrons at Phobos and Deimos during close flybys. The cumulative measurements at each moon would provide quantitative measurements of the bulk composition and hydrogen abundance (and by implication, water abundance) in the topmost l meter of Phobos and Deimos' regolith. The NS instrument would be provided by NASA Ames Research Center. Neutral Mass Spectrometer – Enhanced (NMS-E) would measure the composition of Phobos and Deimos's tenuous solar wind-induced exospheres during close flybys, to identify the surface composition of these moons in non-volatile elements. NMS-E is an upgraded version of LADEE's Neutral Mass Spectrometer (NMS) and MAVEN's Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer (NGIMS) instruments, with enhanced sensitivity. The NMS-E instrument would be provided by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Radio Science (RS) experiment would measure the gravity field of Phobos and Deimos by tracking Doppler effect shifts in the signals from the spacecraft's radio communications system during close flybys of the moons. RS would reveal the internal structure of Phobos and Deimos. The RS experiment would be led by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Optical Imaging System (OIS) is an optically mounted 3-camera system that would produce global, regional, and local color image maps of Phobos and Deimos. The OIS would also measure the libration amplitude of Phobos, to better understand its internal structure. The OIS would achieve a spatial resolution of ~8 cm/pxl in color, and 2.6 cm/pxl in monochromatic mode. The OIS instrument would be provided by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Mars Dust Experiment (MDEX) is an impact-ionization dust detector that would intercept and analyze dust particles encountered around Mars, in particular in close proximity to Phobos and Deimos. MDEX is identical to LADEE's successful Lunar Dust Experiment (LDEX). The MDEX instrument would be provided by the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. The orbiter could also carry an optional laser communications experiment.

Phobos AND DeimOs Retroreflector Array (PANDORA) is a compact passive laser retroreflector device on the PADME spacecraft that would be used as a laser ranging time-of-flight target for a laser communication system on Mars (possibly on board NASA's Mars 2020 rover) to conduct technology demonstrations of laser communication through the martian atmosphere. PANDORA would be provided by the Italian Space Agency and the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare.

Proposed launch PADME could launch on a Medium-lift class launch vehicle. The spacecraft would fit within all Atlas V, Delta IV, and Falcon 9 launch vehicle fairings. If selected, PADME would have been launched in August 2020 and reached Mars seven months later, by March 2021.

International participation PADME includes the participation of scientists from Belgium, France, Italy, and Japan.

See also Discovery Program List of missions to Mars Phobos Surveyor (US mission to Phobos design) Fobos Grunt (Russian mission to Phobos) Phobos program (Soviet mission to Phobos)

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Phobos And Deimos & Mars Environment

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Phobos And Deimos & Mars Environment claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Phobos And Deimos & Mars Environment before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Phobos And Deimos & Mars Environment ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Phobos And Deimos & Mars Environment

In research: Phobos And Deimos & Mars Environment appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Phobos And Deimos & Mars Environment in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Phobos And Deimos & Mars Environment is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Cancelled NASA space probes, Cancelled missions to Mars, Discovery program proposals, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Phobos And Deimos & Mars Environment outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Phobos And Deimos & Mars Environment in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Phobos And Deimos & Mars Environment means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Phobos And Deimos & Mars Environment out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Phobos And Deimos & Mars Environment in simple terms?

Why does Phobos And Deimos & Mars Environment matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Phobos And Deimos & Mars Environment?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Phobos And Deimos & Mars Environment.