Could Colonists Dig Up Ice on Mars?

Spoiler Alert: Yes. Researchers have found nearly pure water ice just below the surface of Mars, in regions easy to reach by human explorers or colonists. Learn more in this episode of BrainStuff.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to brain stuff. From how stuff works. Hey, they
are brain stuff, Lauren Vogel bomb here. Mars has large
deposits of near pure water ice just beneath the surface
at mid latitudes, a discovery that could have huge implications
for future human settlement of the Red planet. Astronauts could
essentially just go there with a bucket and shovel and

(00:23):
get all the water they need, said Shane burn in
a press release from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Burne, who
works at the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory
in Tucson, co authored a new study using the suite
of instruments and cameras on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter or
m r O to uncover this icy find. Buried just
a few meters under the ground and covered by fused

(00:45):
rock and dust. These layers of ice were discovered at
eight sites in eroded scarps or steep hillsides. The most
exciting thing about these sites is that they're in regions
that could be accessible to future Mars explorers at to
fifty eight degrees latitude in the north, othern and southern hemisphere,
negating the need for traveling to challenging polar latitudes to
access a frozen water supply. These ice deposits come from

(01:08):
layers of ancient snow that became buried under rock and
more snow over time. These deposits have become exposed as
these scarps eroded. But how did layers of snow become
deposited at such low latitudes in the first place. Although
Mars currently exhibits ice and snow on the surface only
at high latitudes, this wasn't always the case. Mars experienced

(01:29):
shifts in its climate over the eons as its axis
of rotation changes. Its axial tilt currently approximates that of Earth's,
but over the course of hundreds of thousands, and even
millions of years, mars tilt has varied dramatically, driving global
climatic shifts. Scientists can therefore use the information recorded in
these scarps as an ancient geological record of how Mars's

(01:50):
climate has evolved. Leslie Tempari, m r O, Deputy project
scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told us, if you
had a mission at one of these sites, say umpling
the layers going down the scarp, you could get a
detailed climate history of Mars. It's part of the whole
story of what happens to water on Mars over time,
Where does it go, when does ice accumulate, when does

(02:11):
it recede. The study, which has been published in the
journal Science, is a real help to future human Mars
mission planners. To set up a viable human presence on
the Martian surface, astronauts will need to harness on site resources.
It would be wildly prohibitively expensive to bring all the water, fuel,
and building supplies with them from Earth. Tapping into a

(02:31):
plentiful supply of near pure water ice will be critical
for providing drinking water and a fuel resource, not to
mention irrigation for crops. Previously, scientists have confirmed large deposits
of subsurface water ice using ground penetrating radar, but the
information about what the ice is mixed with and the
quantity of water has been difficult to decipher. Now, by

(02:52):
studying these scarps, scientists have found that these deposits are
close to being pure water ice, and through observations by
orbiting space, we know where to send our astronauts too
big for water. Today's episode was written by Ian O'Neill
and produced by Tristan McNeil. For more on this and

(03:13):
lots of other cool topics, visit our home planet, how
stuff Works dot com.