Erosion is revealing surprising amounts of water ice on Mars
If future astronauts need to mine water on Mars, they may not even have to dig. Thanks to erosion wearing away the Martian surface, scientists using NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have spotted thick deposits of ice in the planet’s mid-latitudes that extend hundreds of feet deep.
The discovery, described in the journal Science, hints of snowfall on Mars in the recent geological past — and could offer researchers a tantalizing new spot to sample our dusty, rusty neighbor.
“This ice is a critical target for science and exploration: it affects modern geomorphology, is expected to preserve a record of climate history, influences the planet’s habitability, and may be a potential resource for future exploration,” the study authors wrote.
In spite of its dry appearance, about a third of the red planet actually holds shallow ground ice. But while that frozen water’s extent is fairly well known, other crucial details — how thick it is, what its layers look like, and how pure it is — largely remain unknown. If future explorers want to be able to draw down these water sources, scientists are going to have to learn much more about them.
http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-mars-water-erosion-20180111-story.html