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You can breathe easily. The Moon is slowly receding away from the Earth at a rate of 3.7 cm/year (1.5 in/yr). But the Martians aren't so lucky. Their moon Phobos is known to be doing exactly the opposite. It's spiraling inward, and in the distant future it will crash into the surface of Mars. Researchers [...]
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Order of Kilopi
Just had to say this:
Oh, Phobos!
Order of Kilopi
Will it help to require that all approaches to and departures from Phobos
be in appropriate directions to increase its momentum?
-- Jeff, in Minneapolis
http://www.FreeMars.org/jeff/
"I find astronomy very interesting, but I wouldn't if I thought we
were just going to sit here and look." -- "Van Rijn"
"The other planets? Well, they just happen to be there, but the
point of rockets is to explore them!" -- Kai Yeves
Established Member
After Phobos crosses the Roche limit, and gets pulled apart into a ring, why would the ring continue to spiral inward? If the matter is evenly spread around its orbit, there would be no net bias in the tides it pulls on Mars' surface. There would be no trailing buldge to slow the ring particles.
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