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NASA also expects these five to be the start of a new era of Mars exploration and wants to set its tracking procedures before the skies get too crowded. Scientists have discussed the possibility of using one of the Martian moons as a base from which astronauts could observe the Red Planet and launch robots to its surface, while shielded by miles of rock from cosmic rays and solar radiation for nearly two-thirds of every orbit.
And here are some great images of both Phobos and Deimos. I suppose there are many thousands near Mars asteroids, which maybe could be helpful for Mars exploration.
Some surely come close to both Earth and Mars and are natural Earth-Mars cyclers with resources we could extract without having to launch them from Earth.
I think some of the sources used for this article are outdated. One possibility is that they formed like the Moon, out of debris from a relatively recent impact on Mars. Should fit politically as a compromise in the endless Mars, Moon and asteroids target choice debate. Just a week or so ago there was an article saying the grooves might be due to Phobos being almost breaking up already.
That gave me an idea and I asked Wolfram Alpha what is the gravitational binding energy of Phobos. Maybe Elon retired to the desolate deserts on Mars, wants a spectacular view for his entertainment, and dear Phobos will be forever gone.
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