Strategic Implications of Phobos as a Staging Point for Mars Surface Missions

As human exploration endeavors begin to set sights beyond low Earth orbit to the surface of the Moon, exploration of the surface of Mars continues to serve asthe “drivingdestination” to help focus development and research efforts. One Mars exploration strategy often discussed is the notion of utilizing the moons of Mars, namely Phobos,as an exploration destination prior toMars surface missions. This strategy is sometimes advocated based on the premisethat staging missions from Mars’ moons as well as exploring the moons themselves would be less costly and risky. However,understanding potential advantages of Phobos staging and exploration must be done in the context of the overall end-to-end Mars surface exploration needs, goals, objectives, campaign approach, and systems required. This paper examines the strategic implications of utilizing the moonsof Mars as a potential location for explorationof Mars. Operational concepts utilizing both Phobos and Mars orbital strategies will be examined to understand the architectural impacts of this staging strategy. The strategic implications of each operational concept are assessed to determine the overall key challenges and strategic links to other explorationdestinations. Results from this analysis indicate that,if the objective is to conduct Mars surface missions, utilizing Phobos as an exploration destination adds little benefittoward the goal of exploration of Mars.