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If humans are to truly become interplanetary settlers, we will need access to water-many of them. However, loading it on a rocket would be heavy, and trying to get rid of Earth’s gravity with all these weights would be expensive.
This is why space agencies such as NASA and the European Space Agency, as well as planetary geologists, have been searching for water sources on Mars.
Now a New paper published in “Icarus” magazine This shows that the area has unique characteristics of underground ice, which will be the best choice for future “Red Planet” explorers.
Ideally, human colonies should be located near the equator, where not only is the temperature higher (in terms of Mars), but it is also easier for spacecraft to land and take off.
Satellite observations by orbiting satellites around Mars indicate that there is an ice sheet on a flat plain called Arcadia Planitia at about 35 degrees north latitude. Both NASA and SpaceX are considering this site For the future of human exploration.
In this new study, the researchers found that this is not only an ice sheet, but also a shallow glacier, similar to what we see in Antarctica.
The lead author of the paper, PhD candidate Shannon Hibbard, said: “When you get closer, you will find many features, these features are these channelized ice glaciers. But, it is strange that it is in a flat terrain.” Studying at Western University in London, Ontario.
Usually, glaciers are formed in valleys, ravines or around mountain bases. Instead, this is in a flat area. These types of ice streams are unexpected on Mars.
But this is good news for future human Martians.
Hibbard said: “We basically want to land to the lowest possible equator, or as close to the equator as possible, and Arcadia Planitia is very close.”
She said this is also promising because there is evidence of a large amount of ice reserves in a relatively flat area, “and we want to land in a flat and boring place, because that is the safest landing site.”
How many ice cubes are there? According to previous studies, there are approximately 13,000 to 61,000 cubic kilometers below the surface of Arcadia Planitia. Researchers believe that 3.5% to 16% of them are ice channels.
Millions of years of history
The axial inclination of Earth and Mars are 23.5 degrees and 25 degrees, respectively. Tanya Harrison, a Mars researcher and planetary scientist at Planet Labs, an Earth imaging company that was not involved in the study, said that although the tilt of the Earth has changed slightly, the tilt of Mars may change as much as 60 degrees.
“At some point in the past tens of thousands to millions of years, ice has actually gone from [was] Become the extreme point of the equator today, because the equator has become the extreme point,” she said.
This discovery made Harrison particularly excited, because they also revealed what Mars looked like a long time ago.
“Usually, when you think of glaciers flowing, they are on the side of the mountain, and you know that your slope is steep, causing these things to go downhill. But if your ground is flat, it’s usually difficult to get things moving.” she says.
“So it’s really cool to see that maybe we have these ice streams on Mars, because we have never really recorded anything that looks like that before.”
Ice can be used for irrigation, drinking water, and rocket fuel. It can be made in the following ways: Decompose hydrogen and oxygen, This is also proposed for the mission to the moon.
The co-author of the paper, Gordon Osinski, director of the Institute of Earth and Space Exploration at Western University, said that current radars can penetrate 30 meters to several kilometers below the surface. But there is more to learn. He said this may involve sending satellites to explore these depths, or it may be a dedicated rover.
He said: “We have a big unknown in the first ten to twenty meters.” “If there is ice there, how much is there, of course it is the critical depth, and we won’t get ice deeper than these for these human tasks. “
Canada may consider playing a role in further research and shallow mapping in the area, especially after the success of the Canadian radar used on OSIRIS-REx Mission to the asteroid Bennu.
Osinski said: “I do think it is necessary to perform this task, and Canada can play an important role, because there is an idea that Canadian radar will fly in this mission to observe these shallow ice layers.” “So. , You know, it’s very exciting for me.”
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