Traces of a large water deposit found on Mars – DW – 01/18/2024
Mars Express probe The European Space Agency (ESA) has discovered that extensive layers of several kilometers existing beneath the soil of Mars’ equator are deeper than previously thought and suggest the presence of ice to the extent that it would be the largest amount of water found in this part of the planet.
The Mars Express mission has been exploring the Red Planet for twenty years with the participation of NASA. Just over fifteen years ago, while studying the Medusa Fossa Formation (MFF), he discovered huge deposits up to 2.5 km deep, but was unable to specify what they were.
“We reexamined the MFF using more recent data from the Mars Express MARSIS radar and found that the deposits are even thicker than we thought: up to 3.7 km,” details Thomas Watters from the Smithsonian Institution (USA). , lead author of both the new study and the original 2007 study.
Huge deposits of ice
And the signals detected by MARSIS are “very similar” to those of Mars’ polar ice caps, “which we know are very ice-rich,” he notes.
In fact, these deposits are so large that if they were to melt, the buried ice would cover the entire planet with a layer of water 1.5 to 2.7 meters deep, enough to fill Earth’s Red Sea.
The existence of this large mass of ice will help understand how the planet’s climate evolved, but above all, it will be necessary to supply future manned missions, the authors emphasize.
Life is like on Mars: this is NASA’s Martian Dune Alpha
Four volunteers live in a 160 square meter 3D printed habitat for a year to test what it would be like to live on Mars. In this way, NASA will receive important information for possible missions to this planet.
Image: Go Nakamura/REUTERS
Starting in June, four volunteers will live in NASA’s Mars Dune Alpha home to test what it would be like to live on the Red Planet. To do this, they will spend a year in a hangar in the research area of the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, USA. There, participants will have several rooms, a space that simulates the outside environment, and, above all, a lot of sand. Red.
Image: Go Nakamura/REUTERS
Isolation is a problem for missions
In the initial experiment, scientists want to test how people live in long-term isolation and how they cope with stressful situations. This will help NASA assess what resources future astronauts need to survive a mission to Mars, Grace Douglas, the Chapea program director in charge of testing, told DW.
Image: Go Nakamura/REUTERS
Volunteers cannot take a lot of luggage with them, since their personal space will be small bedrooms in a house made entirely with a 3D printer. This is one of the technologies that NASA has to build buildings on other planets or on the surface of the Moon, explained Grace Douglas.
Image: Go Nakamura/REUTERS
Experimental space
In addition to the bedrooms, the Mars Dune Alpha house has two bathrooms, a treatment area, a relaxation area and several common work areas. Over the course of a year, researchers will test how volunteers respond to stress, such as water shortages or equipment failure.
Image: Go Nakamura/REUTERS
Special boots for the Martian landscape
Through a gateway, participants can move from a 3D house to a simulated landscape that replicates the landscape of Mars. Life on the red planet is as realistic as possible, with a lot of red sand. That’s why the boots got this color.
Image: Go Nakamura/REUTERS
Exercises important in isolation
In this film, astronauts will be able to experience what it’s like to be in a low-gravity environment, like the outside of Mars, suspended from a belt. They will need to collect samples and data and expand infrastructure construction. “We can’t have them running around in circles for six hours straight,” Suzanne Bell, director of the Behavioral Health and Performance Laboratory, said jokingly.
Image: Go Nakamura/REUTERS
Grow vegetables on Mars
In addition to the weather station, the science center offers a vertical farm for growing seeds and other plants. Here, participants can grow vegetables to support themselves during their stay.
Image: Go Nakamura/REUTERS
Knowledge for future missions
A total of three long-term experiments are planned in the area. Researchers are waiting for “important information” to threaten a longer stay in isolation. NASA is still in the early stages of preparing for a mission to Mars. In principle, the Artemis mission takes precedence because it will be the first time in 50 years that humans will go to the Moon.
Image: Go Nakamura/REUTERS
MMF, the largest source of Martian dust
The MFF is characterized by several wind-shaped features hundreds of kilometers in diameter and several kilometers high that lie at the boundary between the high and low lands of Mars and are possibly the largest source of dust on Mars.
Early observations from Mars Express showed that the MFF was relatively transparent to radar and low in density – typical characteristics of icy deposits – but at the time it could not be ruled out that they were giant accumulations of dust, volcanic ash or entrained sediment. wind.
New analysis suggests it contains layers of dust and ice, covered by a thick layer of protective dust several hundred meters thick.