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Scientists discover underground reservoir of hydrogen, likely ice, near Martian equator

Detection of underground hydrogen in Valles Marineris
Click for full image.

In what could be a very significant discovery, scientists using Europe’s Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) have discovered a surprisingly large underground reservoir of hydrogen, likely ice, near Martian equator and inside the solar system’s largest known canyon, Valles Marineris.

The map to the right, reduced to post here, provides all the important data. From its caption:

The coloured scale at the bottom of the frame shows the amount of ‘water-equivalent hydrogen’ (WEH) by weight (wt%). As reflected on these scales, the purple contours in the centre of this figure show the most water-rich region. In the area marked with a ‘C’, up to 40% of the near-surface material appears to be composed of water (by weight). The area marked ‘C’ is about the size of the Netherlands and overlaps with the deep valleys of Candor Chaos, part of the canyon system considered promising in our hunt for water on Mars.

What the caption does not note is the latitude of this hydrogen, about 3 to 10 degrees south latitude. Assuming the hydrogen represents underground ice, this would be the first detection on Mars below 30 degrees latitude, and the very first in the equatorial regions. Data from orbit has suggested that Mars has a lot of water ice, found near the surface more and more as you move into higher latitudes above 30 degrees and making Mars much like Antarctica. Almost no ice however had until now been detected below 30 degrees latitude. As the European Space Agency’s press release noted,

Water ice is not found exposed at the surface near the equator, as temperatures here are not cold enough for exposed water ice to be stable.

Missions including ESA’s Mars Express have hunted for near-surface water – as ice covering dust grains in the soil, or locked up in minerals – at lower latitudes of Mars, and found small amounts. However, such studies have only explored the very surface of the planet; deeper water stores could exist, covered by dust.

“With TGO we can look down to one metre below this dusty layer and see what’s really going on below Mars’ surface – and, crucially, locate water-rich ‘oases’ that couldn’t be detected with previous instruments,” says Igor Mitrofanov of the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow, Russia; lead author of the new study; and principal investigator of the FREND (Fine Resolution Epithermal Neutron Detector) neutron telescope.

If confirmed as ice, this discovery is ground-breaking, because it suggests that the underground layers of ice that have been detected on Mars down to 30 degrees latitude likely also exists at the equator, though much deeper underground. This discovery suggests that ice table is global, meaning that if you dig down almost anywhere on Mars you will uncover ice.

The ice layer in this part of Valles Marineris appears detectable because the canyon itself has removed the upper layers that normally hide it at the equator, thus putting that layer close to the surface so that TGO could see it.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 

The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

6 comments

  • Greg the Geologist

    Any proposed Starship landing sites near those high-contoured areas? Looks like we have a target!

  • Greg the Geologist. In a word, no. See this post:

    SpaceX narrows Mars landing site for Starship to four prime locations

    All those locations are in the northern lowland plans, which is flat, safe to land at, and has ample water very very close to the surface.

    Landing in Valles Marineris will not be easy. The canyon floor is very rough, with a lot of sand dunes. It also traps you, making exploration elsewhere difficult. I think this is not a first choice, though it will definitely be looked at by the first settlers.

  • wayne

    “Fuel and oxygen harvesting from Martian regolithic brine”
    December 2020
    https://www.pnas.org/content/117/50/31685

    ” Our perchlorate brine electrolyzer operating under simulated Martian surface conditions produces >25× the amount of oxygen produced by the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment from NASA’s Mars 2020 mission for the same input power. Furthermore, our perchlorate brine electrolyzers are more efficient than state-of-the-art alkaline water electrolyzers under terrestrial conditions, providing a pathway to utilize suboptimal input feeds to produce ultrapure hydrogen and oxygen.”

  • Phil Wilson

    Low -5Km below datum makes EDL easier. Better rad protection for surface ops. Safe, flat landing zones.
    See prior NASA study

    https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/e-melas-ez.pdf

  • Patrick Underwood

    Phil Wilson, nice find. I’m no scientist but I’d much rather go to a warmer, sunnier area with denser air than to a colder, darker area with thinner air. As long as water is accessible. From both sources, it looks likely that water and many other useful resources are available in the canyon.

    There’s also Dave Scott’s famous “grandeur” argument. SpaceX’s proposed sites look boring in comparison.

  • Edward

    Patrick Underwood wrote: “There’s also Dave Scott’s famous “grandeur” argument. SpaceX’s proposed sites look boring in comparison.

    Most likely, SpaceX’s proposed boring sites are for proof of concept rather than for colonization. At these sites there may be relatively easy access to water, a test that SpaceX is eager to perform, and if all goes well then they may intend for their first lander to refuel and return to Earth. A test of this sort would go a long way toward confirming the basic strategy for Mars Colonization.

    As with Project Apollo, Dave Scott’s project, it is probably best to start with the safer places and work up to the grandeur.

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