MRO Radar Maps Extensive Subsurface Martian Ice

www.universetoday.com...

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A radar on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has detected widespread deposits of glacial ice in the mid-latitudes of Mars.NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASI/University of Rome/Southwest Research Institute

Quote from source:
Sure, it's big news the Moon has water ice on the north pole, but Mars is loaded! A new extensive radar mapping of the middle-latitude region of northern Mars shows that thick masses of buried ice are quite common beneath the surface. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's Shallow Radar instrument has detected subsurface ice deposits that extend for hundreds of kilometers in the rugged region called Deuteronilus Mensae, about halfway from the equator to the Martian north pole. "We have mapped the whole area with a high density of coverage," said Jeffrey Plaut from JPL. "These are not isolated features. In this area, the radar is detecting thick subsurface ice in many locations."

The Shallow Radar instrument has been charting the locations of these hidden glaciers and ice-filled valleys, finding that the most common locations are around the bases of mesas and scarps, and confined within valleys or craters. After obtaining more than 250 observations of the study area, which is about the size of California, the science team is beginning to understand how these deposits may have been left as remnants when regional ice sheets retreated.

"The hypothesis is the whole area was covered with an ice sheet during a different climate period, and when the climate dried out," Plaut said, "these deposits remained only where they had been covered by a layer of debris protecting the ice from the atmosphere."

This was cool so I thought I would share it with all of you!!

Looks like a ton of water to me, and I would like to know how we didn't do a look for it before. Seems like a lot (I know it is not on the surface) of ice to miss. Didn't we have rovers on Mars prior to this?

Any thoughts?

Pred...

The rovers are not capable of penetrating the surface and they are not in the area where the ice was found.

This discovery was made in 2008.
www.nasa.gov...

reply to post by Phage


I thought they were somewhat digging, maybe not deep but somewhat.

I also thought one had a broken wheel and was dragging and digging some of the surface.

I just thought they would have been able to find some sort of water, somewhere.

It appears as if there is an abundance of it anyway.

Thanks

Pred...

edit because I just read your link.
So, If we knew of this water before why did they make such a big deal out of the water on the moon?

I think it is obvious there will be some on every planet/moon. It comes with asteroids and I think everything has been hit by a couple in their existence.

[edit on 2-3-2010 by predator0187]

reply to post by predator0187


The Phoenix lander (not a rover) had a little shovel that could scrape the surface. It was (is) near the north pole of Mars. It did find a small amount of water ice just below the surface.

The rovers do not have any means of digging. The Opportunity rover discovered frost on the surface. And again, neither rover is anywhere near the large deposits discovered from orbit.

Nice post. It seems, we are finding out that there's plenty Ice around in our Solar Sytem.

I'm not that clued up on the conditions on Mars, so maybe someone can tell me, What does this mean for a possible future Manned mission or Base on Mars?

Is this a massive step forward for a Manned mission or base, or is it still much more feasible to have robots do the dirty work for us?

g.