Scientists have created a new map aimed at identifying the best water sources on Mars.
Water is considered a critical resource to support future reconnaissance activities on Mars. Scientists believe that the Red Planet contains large amounts of water. But finding the best stock from Earth is not easy.
The US space agency NASA has worked for years to identify the best locations for such water. Most water on Mars exists as ice due to extremely cold temperatures.
A new study describes and gives detailed mapping for the areas likely to contain ice. The study recently appeared in Natural Astronomy. It is part of a project called Subsurface Water Ice Mapping, or SWIM.
NASA says the SWIM project combines 20 years of data collected by several of the agency’s Mars explorers from the agency. Researchers at the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona, are conducting the research with support from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.
Gareth Morgan is a scientist at the Planetary Science Institute and led the research. He said in a statement: ‘The purpose of SWIM is to obtain maps of potential bury ice deposits to support the choice of human landing sites. ”
He added that Mars ice cream is an important resource that can be used for many things, including providing drinking water for humans, growing plants for food, and producing methane fuel and breathing air. “But the most important thing is to provide fuel for the return journey to Earth,” Morgan said.
Researchers have already experimented with methods that can use water ice on Mars to produce fuel as well as oxygen.
Richard Davis leads NASA’s efforts to find resources on Mars in preparation for sending humans to the Red Planet. He said identifying water sources on Mars could also help with the search for life, which is likely to be found near the water. “The next border “Mars is for human explorers to get to the surface and look for signs of microbial life,” Davis said.
NASA says most scientists and engineers believe it is the best subsoil ice cream exists below polar areas of Mars in the northern hemisphere. The new map is centered on these areas – south of the polar region, but north of the equator – because it has more favorable conditions for humans. Spacecraft landings would also be easier there.
The map identifies two specific areas on Mars where ice may be found on the surface. The first sits between Plains in an area known as Arcadia Planitia. Scientists believe that the area was formed by ancient volcanic currents. The other contains glacierfilled lowlands in an area called Deuteronilus Mensae.
The study identified the areas using five different methods that examined datasets of previous Mars explorers. These included NASA’s Mars Odyssey, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and the Mars Global Surveyor.
The process is not designed to measure water ice directly, Gareth Morgan explained. Instead, it was intended to predict the likelihood of ice stocks based on observed conditions. He said things like high hydrogen levels and high radar speeds could indicate ice. Scientists can also look at the rate at which the temperature on the surface changes.
NASA says it plans to use the new research to prepare for discussions with top experts to investigate possible human landing sites on Mars.
NASA also recently announced that it has signed an agreement with international partners to develop a future robotic Mars mapping mission to seek water ice. The partnership includes the space agencies in Italy, Canada and Japan.
Additional mapping efforts in the 2020s “could help enable human missions to Mars as early as the 2030s,” NASA said. For the time being, NASA officials plan to continue searching for the best place on Mars to send astronauts so that they will have enough local ice resources to support their activities.
I’m Bryan Lynn.
Bryan Lynn wrote this story for learning English, based on reports from NASA, Nature Astronomy and the Planetary Science Institute. Ashley Thompson was the editor.
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Words in this story
potential – adj. possible
deposit – a. a layer of a substance developed from a natural or chemical process
border – a. the boundaries of what is known or previously done in a knowledge or activity area
subsoil – a. the area below the earth’s surface
polar – adj. with regard to the Arctic or Antarctic regions
plain – a. a large area flat land
glacier – a. a very large ice area that moves slowly up a slope or valley or over a wide country
mission – a. the flight of a spacecraft to perform a specific task or job