Water is related to the climate of Mars and finding ground ice could help scientists understand how the climate of the planet has changed over time, says SK Das
So there is enough evidence that Mars had water in the past, at least on the surface. What happened to that waterIJ Some of the water could have been frozen in the Martian soil. Water frozen in the soil is called ground ice. If the ground ice remains throughout the year without melting, it is called permafrost. Permafrost is common in places like Siberia, northern Canada and near the peaks of high mountains on Earth.
Mars is as cold or colder than the coldest place here on Earth. Ground ice on Mars should stay frozen throughout the year, and will be permafrost. However, finding ground ice on Mars is not easy. A dry layer of soil is believed to be on top of the icy soil, making it difficult to detect it at the surface. Scientists who study Mars have thought of several ways to search for permafrost on Mars.
Some are looking at the pictures of the surface of Mars taken by orbiting spacecraft like Mars Global Surveyor and hope to find features similar to those made by permafrost here on Earth, including wedge-shaped cracks on the ground that meet to form multi-sided shapes and look a lot like giant mud cracks.
Another way of finding ground ice is to send a probe below the surface of Mars. Many scientists think that close to the Martian polar region, the dry layer of soil will be very thin, and the icy ground will be close to the surface. The Mars Polar lander was designed to land on the surface of Mars near the southern pole in 1999. It carried Deep Space 2, a mini probe that was designed to penetrate up to about 3 feet into the soil and send information from below the ground. Unfortunately, the Mars Polar lander was destroyed during attempts to make a landing. The probe Deep Space 2 was also lost in the process.
Answering the question of what happened to water on Mars is important to scientists for many reasons. Water is related to the climate of Mars and finding ground ice could help scientists understand how the climate of Mars has changed over time. Is there life in Mars below the groundIJ Knowing how much water Mars had in the past and what has happened to that water will help scientists answer this question.
Someday, humans will go to Mars. If they want to live on Mars, it is important to know how much frozen water there is in the Martian ice sheets. This is exactly what the MARSIS radar instrument on Mars Express Orbiter is doing now. In order to measure the thickness of ice sheets in the polar region, the radar instrument sends signals to the surface and records the echoes. In this way, the radar is able to see through the layers to the bottom of the ice. Mars Express Orbiter has made more than 300 of these slices through the deposits of ice and dust that cover the polar region. It has found that the southern ice cap is up to 3.7 kilometers thick and the northern ice cap is about 1.8 kilometers thick. If all that ice ever melts, an ocean 11 meters thick would cover the entire Red Planet.
NASA has chalked out an exploration strategy called ‘Follow the Water’. The strategy of following the water starts with an understanding of the current environment on Mars. NASA scientists want to explore features like dry riverbeds, ice in the polar caps and the kind of rocks that form only when water is present. They want to look for hot springs or water reserves below the ground. They want to find out if ancient Mars had a vast ocean.
On the whole, scientists would like to understand how the change came about from a wet and warm Mars to the dry and dusty climate it has today.
Excerpts from the Destination Mars: Secrets of the Red Planet with the permission of Rupa Publications