Mars Glaciers; Enough Water Ice On Mars To Cover The Whole Planet 1 Meter Deep

phys.org...

New studies have now calculated the size of the glaciers and thus the amount of water in the glaciers. It is the equivalent of all of Mars being covered by more than one meter of ice. The results are published in the scientific journal, Geophysical Research Letters.

Read more at: phys.org...

And that does not count the polar ice or the ice in the regeolith or mantle crust boundary layer water.

This has huge implications for ISRU, Colonization, potential terraforming and providing fuel water and air to not only Mars but for in space applications..

We know that microbial life can survive in the harshness of space. Need to get some core samples of that ice ASAP. The evidence of life on another planet would be mind blowing. Well, for some of us at least. You'd probably have to imbed the news within a Justin Bieber article to get everyone attention.

originally posted by: newWorldSamurai
We know that microbial life can survive in the harshness of space. Need to get some core samples of that ice ASAP. The evidence of life on another planet would be mind blowing. Well, for some of us at least. You'd probably have to imbed the news within a Justin Bieber article to get everyone attention.

It would not surprise me at all.

a reply to: stormbringer1701

It is the equivalent of all of Mars being covered by more than one meter of ice.

Buried equivalent. As soon as water ice becomes exposed to the near vacuum of Mars "atmosphere", it evaporates.

originally posted by: intrptr
a reply to: stormbringer1701

It is the equivalent of all of Mars being covered by more than one meter of ice.

Buried equivalent. As soon as water ice becomes exposed to the near vacuum of Mars "atmosphere", it evaporates.

the article says it's covered by a thin layer of dust. thin might mean many things but i would guess it's a nearly negligible shell. negligible in terms of ISRU; i mean. plus water is a heavy molecule it probably freezes and precipitates as fast as it sublimates.

a reply to: stormbringer1701

With water on Mars one would think at the very minimum there would be life from earth already there from earth meteorites landing on it's surface and bringing earth microbes there. The asteroid that killed the dinosaurs surely sent earth life into outer space as meteors and some of those surely impacted Mars? The moon should also have some old earth debris laying around.

OK, I am confused.

I thought Mars had no atmosphere? Why would we colonize on Mars?

Isn't Mars just a living laboratory for us to help us find other planets to colonize?


I just wanted to add, I am not trying to be a smart arsh. I really want to know.

a reply to: crappiekat

I thought Mars had no atmosphere?

Mars does have an atmosphere although it is thinner than Earth's and made up mostly from carbon dioxide , Mars also has clouds.

a reply to: gortex

Does it have gravity? And if not, how do we deal with that?

a reply to: crappiekat

As far as I'm aware the gravity on Mars is about a third of that on Earth.

a reply to: gortex

Thank you for your replies.

I'm on my way over to the Nasa site to do some learning.

We need that water on Earth... but how to get it here without quadrillions of dollars...

a reply to: stormbringer1701

Speed Skating, now we Dutch will beat everyone in getting there because we want to be the first with an Ice Skate Academy.

originally posted by: Kali74
We need that water on Earth... but how to get it here without quadrillions of dollars...

How about we practise by sending satellites to asteroids and seeing if we can land them there, thereby paving the way for trajectory alteration and...hold on...erm...

a reply to: stormbringer1701

the article says it's covered by a thin layer of dust. thin might mean many things but i would guess it's a nearly negligible shell

I think its also spread quite sparsely, mixed with other frozen volatiles. so when they say "ice" them mean like "dry ice", mostly CO2.

ETA: Hard to separate the water and melt it, too, let alone the power for electrolysis to make air and fuel.

Not as simple as, hey, theres three feet of fresh water ice laying around, all we have to do is wait for the sun to melt some…

a reply to: intrptr

As far as I can gather, they are in fact talking about water ice.

From the article:

Several satellites orbit Mars and on satellite images, researchers have been able to observe the shape of glaciers just below the surface. For a long time scientists did not know if the ice was made of frozen water (H2O) or of carbon dioxide (CO2) or whether it was mud.
Using radar measurements from the NASA satellite, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, researchers have been able to determine that is water ice.

a reply to: Jonjonj

Mostly dry ice, frozen CO2 with some water mixed in, on the surface.

ETA:

link

a reply to: intrptr

I think that the information provided above is more recent, and that maybe the rover was at the wrong place. This article is talking about glacial belts and might be a completely different thing. Yes?

Here is a link from the original site as far as I can tell:
Niels Bohr Institute

a reply to: stormbringer1701

This makes me think of that ats thread saying all the water on earth would fit in a a ball the size of one of our states

I can't realty remember the size of the ball or even the thread but I know it's here somewhere

It just shows if there is enough to cover the whole planet with a meter then there could easily have been very deep oceans with a lot of dry land