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Source: Global Times

[Global Times Special Correspondent Chen Shan] "There are a lot of water resources underground on Mars" has become a major discovery in the astronomical community recently. However, the US "Space" website "poured cold water" on the discussion on "how to use the water resources on Mars" on social media on the 13th. The report said that humans may not be able to effectively use them in the near future.

According to a research paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on the 12th, in addition to the frozen water resources at the poles, Mars still has a large amount of liquid water under the surface. Relevant assessments believe that the total amount of water underground on Mars "can cover the entire Mars, up to a depth of 1 mile." According to reports, American scientists came to the above conclusion based on Mars seismic data collected by NASA's InSight Mars lander from 2018 to 2022. They compared the speed at which seismic waves propagate inside Mars with mathematical models that describe the physical properties of different types of rocks in the Martian crust and mantle. This approach is exactly the same as the model used by seismologists on Earth to identify underground aquifers and oil fields. The results show that the speed at which Martian seismic waves pass through rocks is most consistent with broken igneous rocks filled with liquid water. Professor Manga of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, said that water is an important factor affecting planetary evolution, and the new research results answer a key question: "Where did all the water on Mars go?" Professor Manga believes that on Earth, most of the water is underground, "and there is no reason why this should not be the case on Mars."

According to the "Space" website, scientists believe that a long time ago, there was a lot of liquid water on the surface of Mars, and there were even oceans, lakes and rivers. However, due to the disappearance of the Martian atmosphere, the extremely low air pressure and water vapor content made it difficult for liquid water to exist stably. This water disappeared about 3 billion years ago, and now only dry lake beds and empty rivers are left. Although there is still a small amount of water in the polar ice caps and permafrost in the mid-latitudes of Mars, the scientific community generally believed that the rest of the water on Mars had escaped into space. Since Mars has no magnetic field protection, the strong solar ultraviolet rays decompose the water molecules in the Martian atmosphere, of which hydrogen will be carried into space by the solar wind, and oxygen will oxidize the surface rocks to form the rusty red planet we see today.

But research by American scientists shows that perhaps not all the water on Mars has been irreversibly lost in this way. A large part of it has also penetrated into the crust and is stored in tiny cracks and pores in broken igneous rocks. The problem is that these water resources are hidden very deep, and with the current technological capabilities of mankind, they are basically impossible to use. Seismic data show that these groundwaters on Mars exist at depths of 11.5 to 20 kilometers underground, while there is no water at all in the crust within a depth of 5 kilometers. Therefore, even if the latest discovery proves that there is indeed a large amount of liquid water on Mars, it is unrealistic to expect astronauts to mine it on Mars. The report cited the example that the deepest artificial underground drilling ever conducted on Earth is the Kola Superdeep Borehole in Russia. Soviet engineers spent 20 years drilling down to try to reach the mantle, but had to stop drilling at a depth of 12.2 kilometers because the surrounding temperature rose too high and the high temperature of 180 degrees Celsius had seriously affected the performance of the drill bit. Therefore, it is conceivable that drilling work at the same depth on Mars is unlikely to be completed in the short term.

However, the report also stated that if the conclusion that there are a large amount of water resources underground on Mars is true, the research will have certain significance for understanding the water cycle of Mars, determining the direction of surface water on Mars, searching for past or existing life, and evaluating the utilization of on-site resources for future exploration missions.