Scientists have created a new map that aims to identify the best sources of water on Mars.
Water is considered a critical resource to support future exploration activities on Mars. Scientists believe that the red planet contains large amounts of water. But finding the best supplies from Earth is not easy.
The US space agency NASA has worked for years to identify the best points for these waters. Most of Mars’ water exists as ice due to extremely cold temperatures.
A new study describes and provides detailed maps of the areas most likely to contain water ice. The study appeared recently in Nature 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 various agency Mars explorers. Researchers at the Institute of Planetary Sciences in Tucson, Arizona, are leading the research, with support from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.
Gareth Morgan is a scientist at the Planetary Science Institute and helped lead the research. He said in a statement: “The aim of SWIM is to provide maps of potential buried ice deposits to support the selection of human landing sites ”.
He added that Mars ice is a critical resource that could be used for many things, including supplying drinking water to humans, growing food plants and producing methane fuel and breathable air. “But the most important thing is to provide fuel for the journey back home to Earth,” Morgan said.
Researchers have already experimented with methods that could use water ice on Mars to produce fuel and 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 in the search for life, which would likely be close to water. “The next border because Mars is for human explorers to get below the surface and look for signs of microbial life, ”Davis said.
NASA says most scientists and engineers believe they are the most accessible subsoil there is ice underneath polar areas of Mars in the northern hemisphere. The new map focused on these areas, south of the polar zone but north of the equator, because they maintain more favorable conditions for humans. Landing ship landings would also be easier there.
The map identifies two specific areas on Mars where underground ice is likely to be found. The first is between plans in an area known as Arcadia Planitia. Scientists believe the area was formed by ancient volcanic flows. The other contains glacier-filled lowlands in an area called Deuteronilus Mensae.
The study identified areas using five different methods that examined data sets from past Mars explorers. They included NASA’s Mars Odyssey, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Global Surveyor.
The process was not designed to measure water ice directly, Gareth Morgan explained. Instead, it was intended to predict the probability of ice supply based on the observed conditions. He said things like high hydrogen levels and high radar wave speeds may suggest ice. Scientists can also examine how quickly temperatures change on a surface.
NASA says it plans to use the new research to prepare for discussions with top experts to examine possible human landing zones on Mars.
NASA also recently announced that it had signed an agreement with international partners to develop a future robotic mapping of Mars mission to look for water ice. The partnership includes space agencies from Italy, Canada and Japan.
Additional mapping efforts during the 2020s “could help make possible human missions to Mars as early as the 2030s,” NASA said. For now, NASA officials plan to continue looking for the best place on Mars to send astronauts, so they have enough local ice and water 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 – n. a layer of a substance that has developed from a natural or chemical process
border – n. the limits of what is known or what has been done before in an area of knowledge or activity
subsoil – n. the area below the Earth’s surface
polar – adj. relative to the regions of the North or South Pole
plan – n. a large area of flat land
glacier – n. a very large area of ice that moves slowly down a slope or valley or over a large area of land
mission – n. the flight of a spaceship to perform a certain task or job