I posed the Deimos mission last weekend, so let's fill it in. And yes I'm blowing off Phobos.
Solar-system traders want the entire moon as a momentum-bank with a tether, with an aim to make it areosynchronous (where it can be). In the meanwhilst, a Martian mission might not have the infrastructure to build all that, when Elon first goes there.
A few tasks can be done near Deimos without being on actual Deimos. For instance: parking the [star]ship[s] which take[s] Matt Damon back to Earth. That job would be a job for MDL4 and MDL5 halo; such can host an entire colony. These libration-orbits can also host the Laser.
The orbiting Deimos-adjacent stations host a temporary population, on account I do not expect any station to last past a decade with its original parts. Mining and manufacturing on Deimos is their goal.
Toward that goal, MDL4 and L5 should assemble stations affording the same centrifugal gravity as supported the Earthlings during their long trip by Hohmann. These are designed to be docked on Deimos.
The goal for stations of Deimos, to maximise the population up there, is to hollow out Deimos' interior for a big stone O'Neill. This does mean any tether drilled into Deimos must be detached. Although if the other shell has a magnet, that magnet might support a tether, as Paul Birch has proposed for orbital-rings.
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