Red Planet On The Rocks
New data from NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey mission suggest vast regions of the top 3 feet of the red planet abound in water, mixed as ice with dirt, dust and rock.
Scientists believe the water probably accounts for just a few percent of Mars' surface, but covers a huge area that stretches from the planet's frozen southern polar cap northward to about 60 degrees south latitude.
"The signal we have been getting loud and clear is there is a lot of ice on Mars," said William Boynton, of the University of Arizona, Tucson, chief scientist of the spacecraft instrument that measures the abundance of hydrogen, a likely indicator of the presence of water.
The results were presented Friday at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.
"The results are exceeding our expectations," said Roger Gibbs, the Odyssey deputy project manager for JPL, which manages the $300 million mission.
Already less than two weeks into a mapping mission expected to last at least 917 days, Odyssey has changed scientists' view of the planet, said R. Stephen Saunders, the Odyssey project scientist for JPL.
"It's only a glimpse of what's to come," he said.
The spacecraft is intended to map the chemical and elemental makeup of the Martian surface and hunt for water and hot springs that could indicate geothermal activity. Another instrument, designed to measure the planet's radioactive environment and the risks it may hold for any future astronauts, has malfunctioned.
However, initial data collected before the instrument ceased working suggests that en route to Mars human astronauts would be bombarded with about twice as much radiation as are the crew members orbiting the Earth aboard the international space station, said Frank Cucinotta, chief scientist for the Mars radiation environment experiment.
Even though other missions, including the still-functioning Mars Global Surveyor, give scientists a sharper view of Mars, Odyssey has begun to provide a far different look, including the first nighttime images of its surface, scientists said.
"It literally allows us to see in the dark," said Philip Christensen, of Arizona State University, Tempe, the spacecraft camera's chief scientist.
The camera may even be sensitive enough to pick out any residual warmth in the radioactive power sources aboard NASA's twin Viking landers, which set down on Mars in 1976, he said.