Shallow Subsurface Ice on Mars

Jeffrey J. Plaut, NASA Jet Propulsion Scientist, Reviews the Evidence for Shallow Subsurface Ice on Mars.

The Marsis and Sharad missions to Mars provide evidence of shallow ground ice that is tens of meters from the surface. The overall average is 5-10 meters of thickness across Mars. Out-croppings are spots where the ice is visible. Recent impacts show some ice is only 1 meter from the surface.

There is a lot of accessible ice on Mars in the mid-latitudes. There is also a lot of ice at the poles.

26 thoughts on “Shallow Subsurface Ice on Mars”

  1. Unfortunately we are going to need much higher resolution than that. To select a landing area we need to know that the area is flat without boulders even small ones. We might even have to drop a rover for the final pass.

  2. Unfortunately we are going to need much higher resolution than that. To select a landing area we need to know that the area is flat without boulders even small ones. We might even have to drop a rover for the final pass.

  3. Unfortunately we are going to need much higher resolution than that. To select a landing area we need to know that the area is flat without boulders even small ones. We might even have to drop a rover for the final pass.

  4. Unfortunately we are going to need much higher resolution than that. To select a landing area we need to know that the area is flat without boulders even small ones. We might even have to drop a rover for the final pass.

  5. Unfortunately we are going to need much higher resolution than that. To select a landing area we need to know that the area is flat without boulders even small ones. We might even have to drop a rover for the final pass.

  6. We have that. Check out the uahirise dot org website. It has a browsable map with high definition images of selected areas, it’s pretty cool.

  7. We have that. Check out the uahirise dot org website. It has a browsable map with high definition images of selected areas it’s pretty cool.

  8. I think there’s a spare Hubble mirror lying around someplace. (Just checked, it’s at the national aerospace museum.) Musk should offer to put a very high resolution space telescope in orbit around Mars. He can split time with the astronomers doing parallax studies.

  9. I think there’s a spare Hubble mirror lying around someplace. (Just checked it’s at the national aerospace museum.) Musk should offer to put a very high resolution space telescope in orbit around Mars. He can split time with the astronomers doing parallax studies.

  10. I think there’s a spare Hubble mirror lying around someplace. (Just checked, it’s at the national aerospace museum.) Musk should offer to put a very high resolution space telescope in orbit around Mars. He can split time with the astronomers doing parallax studies.

  11. Try looking for caves. Shouldn’t be that difficult to find. What we need is a surveying satellite with a very high resolution camera. That is one of the first things Musk should send to Mars. And he should do it soon.

  12. Try looking for caves. Shouldn’t be that difficult to find. What we need is a surveying satellite with a very high resolution camera. That is one of the first things Musk should send to Mars. And he should do it soon.

  13. There is also a good chance of water deep underground. The only way to know is to drill. A high resolution thermal scan should also be done to check for gyserers.

  14. There is also a good chance of water deep underground. The only way to know is to drill. A high resolution thermal scan should also be done to check for gyserers.

  15. Two points: 3. If 1% of the light makes it through both sides of the beer bottle, this is evidence that you don’t have the bottle full of dark black stout porter. Get a new bottle immediately. 4. That wasn’t Forrest Gump’s soliloquy. That was Benjamin Buford “Bubba” Blue, Forrest’s military buddy.

  16. Two points:3. If 1{22800fc54956079738b58e74e4dcd846757aa319aad70fcf90c97a58f3119a12} of the light makes it through both sides of the beer bottle this is evidence that you don’t have the bottle full of dark black stout porter. Get a new bottle immediately.4. That wasn’t Forrest Gump’s soliloquy. That was Benjamin Buford Bubba”” Blue”””” Forrest’s military buddy.”””

  17. For the groundside folk, it must be remembered that there is 14.7 lbs/in² × 0.454 → 6.67 kg/in² ÷ 25.4² → 0.01034 kg/mm² × 10³ × 10³ → 10,344 kg/m² of AIR above one’s head at sea level, here on ol Ball-o-Dirt. So, one needs to reproduce that in one’s Lunar or Martian habitat, over one’s head. More or less.¹ Rock — especially regolith on the Moon — is fairly well regarded as having an average density near water. 1,000 kg/m³.² So… 10,344 kg ÷ 1,000 kg/m³ → 10.3 meters of regolith above one’s head. Thing is, that regolith is quite a bit different on composition from air. Different scattering potential for cosmic ray hits. The fine-line analysis is actually rather more complicated than just figuring extinction coefficients³ for different radiation species⁴ hitting one’s chosen cover material. As BRETT suggests, the plural: TENS of meters is enough. I concur. What one might calculate as mininally sufficient, doubled or tripled … becomes magnificently capable. Just saying, GoatGuy. _______ ¹ more or less: different species, different rates, different self-decay half-lifes ² Water is 1 kg/liter, but a liter is 0.001 m³ (1 dm³). Therefore 1 kg/L ÷ 0.001 m³/L → 1,000 kg/m³; ³ extinction coefficient: the amount of pass-thru left after something goes through an absorbing material. Think of brown beer bottles. Extinction coefficient of over 90% in the optical band, for something 2 mm thick. 10% makes it through. Therefore, 2 bottles (or the proximal and distal surfaces of THIS bottle) will absorb (1 – (1 – 0.90)²) → 0.99 of the incident light. Likewise, if you triple the thickness over one’s head on Luna of the minimal overburden, then that’s letting (maximum allowable leak-thru)³ to get through. The 3rd power of 0.000001 (or something like that), is 0.0000000000000001. A very small number. Excellent. ⁴ Its like Forrest Gump’s long Shrimp soliloquy. There’s muons, and protons, electrons and neutrons, there’s gammas and alphas, and x-rays and pion

  18. For the groundside folk it must be remembered that there is 14.7 lbs/in² × 0.454 → 6.67 kg/in² ÷ 25.4² → 0.01034 kg/mm² × 10³ × 10³ → 10344 kg/m² of AIR above one’s head at sea level here on ol Ball-o-Dirt.So one needs to reproduce that in one’s Lunar or Martian habitat over one’s head. More or less.¹Rock — especially regolith on the Moon — is fairly well regarded as having an average density near water. 1000 kg/m³.² So…10344 kg ÷ 1000 kg/m³ → 10.3 meters of regolith above one’s head. Thing is that regolith is quite a bit different on composition from air. Different scattering potential for cosmic ray hits. The fine-line analysis is actually rather more complicated than just figuring extinction coefficients³ for different radiation species⁴ hitting one’s chosen cover material. As BRETT suggests the plural: TENS of meters is enough. I concur. What one might calculate as mininally sufficient doubled or tripled … becomes magnificently capable. Just sayingGoatGuy._______¹ more or less: different species different rates different self-decay half-lifes² Water is 1 kg/liter but a liter is 0.001 m³ (1 dm³). Therefore 1 kg/L ÷ 0.001 m³/L → 1000 kg/m³;³ extinction coefficient: the amount of pass-thru left after something goes through an absorbing material. Think of brown beer bottles. Extinction coefficient of over 90{22800fc54956079738b58e74e4dcd846757aa319aad70fcf90c97a58f3119a12} in the optical band for something 2 mm thick. 10{22800fc54956079738b58e74e4dcd846757aa319aad70fcf90c97a58f3119a12} makes it through. Therefore 2 bottles (or the proximal and distal surfaces of THIS bottle) will absorb (1 – (1 – 0.90)²) → 0.99 of the incident light. Likewise if you triple the thickness over one’s head on Luna of the minimal overburden then that’s letting (maximum allowable leak-thru)³ to get through. The 3rd power of 0.000001 (or something like that) is 0.0000000000000001. A very small number. Excellent.⁴ Its like

  19. Tens of meters is enough for decent radiation and meteor shielding, and a counter-weight for air pressure, so tunneling through ice rich strata might be the best option for habitat space.

  20. Tens of meters is enough for decent radiation and meteor shielding and a counter-weight for air pressure so tunneling through ice rich strata might be the best option for habitat space.

  21. Try looking for caves. Shouldn’t be that difficult to find. What we need is a surveying satellite with a very high resolution camera. That is one of the first things Musk should send to Mars. And he should do it soon.

  22. Two points:
    3. If 1% of the light makes it through both sides of the beer bottle, this is evidence that you don’t have the bottle full of dark black stout porter. Get a new bottle immediately.
    4. That wasn’t Forrest Gump’s soliloquy. That was Benjamin Buford “Bubba” Blue, Forrest’s military buddy.

  23. For the groundside folk, it must be remembered that there is 14.7 lbs/in² × 0.454 → 6.67 kg/in² ÷ 25.4² → 0.01034 kg/mm² × 10³ × 10³ → 10,344 kg/m² of AIR above one’s head at sea level, here on ol Ball-o-Dirt.

    So, one needs to reproduce that in one’s Lunar or Martian habitat, over one’s head. More or less.¹

    Rock — especially regolith on the Moon — is fairly well regarded as having an average density near water. 1,000 kg/m³.² So…

    10,344 kg ÷ 1,000 kg/m³ → 10.3 meters of regolith above one’s head. Thing is, that regolith is quite a bit different on composition from air. Different scattering potential for cosmic ray hits. The fine-line analysis is actually rather more complicated than just figuring extinction coefficients³ for different radiation species⁴ hitting one’s chosen cover material.

    As BRETT suggests, the plural: TENS of meters is enough. I concur. What one might calculate as mininally sufficient, doubled or tripled … becomes magnificently capable.

    Just saying,
    GoatGuy.
    _______

    ¹ more or less: different species, different rates, different self-decay half-lifes

    ² Water is 1 kg/liter, but a liter is 0.001 m³ (1 dm³). Therefore 1 kg/L ÷ 0.001 m³/L → 1,000 kg/m³;

    ³ extinction coefficient: the amount of pass-thru left after something goes through an absorbing material. Think of brown beer bottles. Extinction coefficient of over 90% in the optical band, for something 2 mm thick. 10% makes it through. Therefore, 2 bottles (or the proximal and distal surfaces of THIS bottle) will absorb (1 – (1 – 0.90)²) → 0.99 of the incident light. Likewise, if you triple the thickness over one’s head on Luna of the minimal overburden, then that’s letting (maximum allowable leak-thru)³ to get through. The 3rd power of 0.000001 (or something like that), is 0.0000000000000001. A very small number. Excellent.

    ⁴ Its like Forrest Gump’s long Shrimp soliloquy. There’s muons, and protons, electrons and neutrons, there’s gammas and alphas, and x-rays and pions. There’s kaons, and mesons, and lions and tigers. Oh, and there are the anti-particles too. Positrons, anti-protons, anti-pions, and … and … and … in Charlie Brown’s argot, “Arrrrggghhhhh!!!!”

  24. Tens of meters is enough for decent radiation and meteor shielding, and a counter-weight for air pressure, so tunneling through ice rich strata might be the best option for habitat space.

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