Fed2 Star - the newsletter for the space trading game Federation 2

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by ibgames

EARTHDATE: October 29, 2017

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REAL LIFE NEWS: PHOBOS CHARGED UP BY SOLAR RADIATION

by Hazed

The Martian moon Phobos – in Fed, the home of The Phobos Pharmaceuticals Cooperative with its very dim receptionist, Tracey – may not be as hospitable to visitors as I thought when I designed its locations. A new study shows that it may be bombarded with electrically charged particles from solar eruptions, which charge parts of the surface to hundreds of volts.

This could be a problem for plans to use Phobos as a base for exploring Mars. It is thought that astronauts could potentially control rovers on Mars from Phobos, which would be more convenient than controlling them from Earth.

But William Farrell, a researcher at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, said, “We found that astronauts or rovers could accumulate significant electric charges when traversing the night side of Phobos – the side facing Mars during the Martian day.”

While the charges are probably not high enough to hurt a human, they could affect sensitive machinery and sensors.

The two Martian moons, Phobos and Deimos, are without an atmosphere. This means there is nothing to shield their surfaces from a bombardment of ions, electrons and electromagnetic radiation from the sun.

“We found that excess charge builds up in these regions during all solar wind conditions, but the charging effect was especially severe in the wake of solar eruptions like coronal mass ejections, which are dense, fast gusts of solar wind,” said Farrell.

“We would need to design spacesuits and equipment that minimizes any charging hazard,” he added.

Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/10/20/mars_moons_visit/

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