Water On Mars

Man is exploring,and now exploration is beyond the planet. Mars,one of the nearest planet of the earth have been declared to have traces of water present on its surface. Mars could have entire oceans’ worth of water locked deep inside the rocks. Water almost exists in the form of ice. However some amount of liquid water and vapours are also present on its surface.

Nasa’s curiosity rover has found that water can exist as liquid near the MARTIAN surface. However water in liquid state is rarely found, it is abundantly found in the form of ice which is present beneath the permanent carbon di oxide ice cap at the martian south pole.

About 4.3 billon years ago mars would have had enough water to cover its entire surface in liquid layer about 450 feet deep. Moreover water would have been formed an ocean covering half of the red planets surface. But current situation is entirely different. Water is rarely found in flowing state. However efforts are made to extract the available water.

How water can be extracted from the surface of mars?

Mainly on the red planet water is extracted from the soil. Location for extraction is selected based on the water content present in the soil. The expected location is 40 and 45 degree North. Extraction process will involve life support unit and extractor. The water extractor will heat the soil till water gets evaporated and then evaporated water is made to condense and stored. The dry soil gets expelled and the process is repeated to extract large amount of water.

Although large amount of efforts are made by the scientists but there exists some of the challenges which hinders the lively conditions on mars. Some of the challenges are:

• Atmospheric pressure at the surface of mars is just 600 pascals which is about 0.6% of earths’ mean sea level. So it becomes difficult for water bodies to survive in such condition.
• Moreover thin films of water is formed when salt in the soil absorbs vapour from the atmosphere, these films are of about 70 degree which is too cold to support any of the microbial life form. Since the global average temperature is far too low,it leads to either rapid evaporation or rapid freezing

MARS lacks a thick atmosphere,ozone layer and magnetic field which allows solar and cosmic radiation to strike the surface. This damaging effect of ionising radiations on cellular structure is one of the most limiting factor for the survival of organisms.

Although there are some possibilities of availability of water on the red planet but current environment status of the planet is dry and subfreezing, presenting large obstacle for the extraction of water. However understanding water on mars is vital to assess the planets’ potential for harboring life and for providing usable resources for future human exploration.

Written by: Aakriti Jain

Written at: thepapers.in