Note, Paper: Icarus and the water

Icarus, the Solar System Astronomy journal, has some worthy papers as you might expect. First, a holdover from the “March” Icarus issue (vol. 410- not like months are even relevant any more for a virtual “issue”):

Kamada, A. Kuroda, T. Terada, N. et al. Modeling 4.3 billion years of water history on Phobos 115916

And now April:

Harvison, B. De Prá, M. Pinilla-Alonso, N. et al. PRIMASS near-infrared study of the Erigone… 115973

Joiret, S. Raymond, S. N. Avice, G. et al. Crash Chronicles: Relative contribution from comets… 116032

Notice we have TWO asteroid papers actively mentioning water in their titles; the third, Harvison et al. 2024 Icarus vol. 412 115973, also relates to water investigation, but via the tracking of water-bearing parent bodies. If water can be mined from Phobos in particular, that would make the “moonlet” (effectively an asteroid orbiting Mars) about the most valuable real estate in the Solar System. Water is valuable for braking down to Mars, launching back from Martian orbit, use on Mars per se, and hauling to other destination. In particular, since Phobos has a negligible gravity field, and is high enough out of Mars’ gravity field, it’s actually worthwhile to bring Phobos resources to EARTH’S MOON. That’s right, Phobos is a logistical enabler to make lunar missions viable. Earth’s moon, however, is (due to surprisingly high gravity, and lossy missions) next to useless for anywhere other than itself. Lunar materials are circular arguments: there’s no deeper significance, only a deeper gravity field to blow propellant on.