Discoveries from the European Space Agency’s (ESA’s) Mars Express probe show strong visual evidence of a large frozen sea of ice buried beneath a thin blanket of dust near the Martian equator. The implications of this find are pretty cool for all science, but especially cool for someone looking to become a Martian hydrogeologist. I had submitted a proposal last November to study Martian groundwater, and this discovery of a very large body of water within inches of the surface makes me look much better. Hopefully the committee who chose which proposals to fund notice this news story before they announce the winners next Monday.
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Anyway, the more long-term significance of this is that, if true, this huge frozen sea of ice can provide a tremendous water resource for Martian explorers near to the equator. Known frozen water resources on Mars are concentrated at the poles, which are less desirable for exploration as they are cold…very cold. The equator, by comparison, can achieve temperatures above freezing during the summer time. So, if shown to be true, the study of Mars, and the likelihood of human exploration there, just improved. The article in Nature detailing this will be published in mid March.
As far as the importance of this to me…well my whole career plan hinges on continued exploration of Mars. I want to eventually be the man that NASA (or whoever sends the first astronauts there) calls for expert advice on where to land. I want to be on the site selection committee, and be one of the principal investigator on probes or instruments designed to study the water. Of course, I’d like to explore the planet as well, but by the time that happens, I’ll be 40. That’s a management and leadership role age, not a robust youngun exploring the solar system age. So, unless there is wisdom in sending a man with a wife and family to Mars to be away for 2.5 years, I’ll be watching from here–but I’m not really sad about that. Though Neil Armstrong said some words on the surface of the moon, he’s not the guy who got us there. We can have a million Armstrongs, but without the Werner von Brauns of the world, we’ll be stuck on this paradise of a planet forever. Yuck!
BTW, if any chemical engineers out there desire to work on such issues, we’re going to need a compact desalination and water purification unit that operates on the power equivalent to a hand-crank. Any takers?
