Mars today is very dry. Scientists believe though that it once had much water. It is still being speculated how Mars has become dry, though the search for water there is still ongoing. There might be water on Mars, as some say that Mars has more water hidden beneath its surface.
Researchers are looking into the possibility that Mars might have ice beneath its surface. The area that's speculated to have it is in the Utopia Planitia region. The area is being probed using NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The orbiter has a ground penetrating instrument called SHARAD in order to look beneath Mars' surface.
Through the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter researchers have determined that there might be ice beneath the surface of Mars. This ice deposit is thought to be large. It is estimated to be around 80 meters to 250 meters thick and is as large as New Mexico. The ice deposit is protected from evaporation by soil one to ten meters thick.
Finding such a large deposit of ice on Mars is significant as, currently, it has no water on it. Any water on Mars' surface would evaporate quickly, as Mars has a thin atmosphere that can be penetrated by radiation. This would also be significant for future manned missions to Mars. The study's lead author, Cassie Stuurman from the Institute for Geophysics at the University of Texas at Austin said that the ice deposit likely formed at a time when Mars still had snowfall and was more tilted than it is today.
Mars varies its tilt throughout its history, according to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory's site. This variation occurs every 120,000 years when Mars would tilt by twice as much as it is now. As Mars tilts, its poles are heated and drives the ice towards the middle portion of the planet.
The ice that is beneath the Utopia Planitia region is more accessible than other ice deposits that might be on Mars, as Jack Holt of the University of Texas and co-author of the study said. The ice is on a flat and smooth surface, unlike other areas where the ice is buried. This could be used as a resource for water in manned Mars missions, as Science Daily reports.
The water under the Utopia Planitia region is frozen, though scientists aren't ruling out the possibility of water still underneath the region. There is a possibility that Mars has more water hidden beneath its surface. This would be important for future manned explorations of Mars. There are speculations by conspiracy theorists that NASA's rover missions on Mars have been actually staged on Earth.
