The spot light is back on Mars again.

On the 28th of July 2018 scientist from the European Space Agency (ESA) announced that their Mars Express probe which has been orbiting around the red planet for the past 15 years has found strong evidence of liquid water about 1 km deep underneath the Martian surface in the form of a subsurface lake located at the Southern pole of the planet.

(The European Mars Express probe that made the discovery)

The data was obtained by an instrument called the MARSIS (Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding) fitted to the space probe. This scientific instrument has the capability to penetrate through the Martian rocks using radar much like the same way how a medical ultrasound machine works when a pregnant women has a foetal ultrasound scan. The received radar waves can be analysed and a detailed picture is built up using the reflected radio waves. Solid rock would have a certain reflected radio signature different to that of a radio signature that has been reflected off of liquid water.

Don’t hold me to this but I think that a radar reflection from solid rock would appear bright? And a reflection from liquid water would be dark? Let me know in the comments if I’m right?

So if this is an underground liquid water lake still yet to be confirmed how has it stayed in liquid form on the planet for so long?

The environment on Mars is that of an extreme one, think of living at the top of Mount Everest, a very cold, low atmosphere pressure and high radiation environment, not very kind to complex life as we know it.

(A subsurface lake somewhere on Earth, maybe the Lake of Mars would look like this?)

Theoretically no liquid water can exist on the surface of Mars, the reason being is because of the low atmospheric pressure. You can thank the Sun for basically blowing away most of Mars’s atmosphere over billions of years because of the planets very weak electromagnetic field essentially giving the planet no shielding. If you were standing on the surface of Mars holding a glass of water the water would literally boil off into the atmosphere (not boil as in getting hot). The same would happen to the blood in your body if you were brave enough to climb out of your space suit which would have very bad consequences for your health, don’t ever do this if you get to Mars!

(Container of water boiling, this would happen to any water on the surface of Mars, but the temperature would be cold, its the lack of air pressure that causes it to boil).

So this underground lake must be under the same atmospheric pressure or more here on Earth to keep the water in liquid state and so to stop it from boiling off. Also another theory is that the water is extremely salty. We have all seen salt trucks in the USA and Europe spraying salt on the roads during the winter seasons. Essentially the salt stops the water from freezing into ice and keeps it in liquid form this same theory can be put to the Martian subsurface lake.

Would there be any life living in this lake?

My short answer is I have no idea?? And I think anyone else at this early stage would agree with me. Again this lake is still not 100% confirmed to be liquid water at all, these scientist have only just scratched the surface on this issue. The only way would be for humans to actually go there and start drilling through the rock but in my view a manned mission to Mars is still many decades away, just look at how hard it is to send humans to the international space station and keep them there alive and well for 6 months. A manned mission to Mars is a completely different story with many unsolved challenges.

Could we send an advanced Robot with drilling equipment to go there?

Again I believe that this is still many decades away. Yes robotics has advanced a huge amount in the past few decades but a robot capable of drilling down over 1km into the rock would still need human supervision and human maintenance, a huge electrical power source, a huge amount of bandwidth for communication with Earth (traditional radio waves can’t carry enough data), a super-fast processing CPU, and the most advanced AI decision making ever programmed, not to mention that electronics, high levels of radiation and freezing cold temperatures do not mix, and the lack of solar power at the southern pole.

I think that the next logical step which is technologically possible would be to send another orbiting space probe specifically orbiting around the Martian southern pole of the planet equipped with a much stronger radar penetrating instrument which could at least confirm that it really is a liquid water lake present, from there collect all of the data on where is the most shallowest point in the rock then start designing a robot capable of drilling through the rock from the obtained data. Once the hardware for this robot is built a good place to start testing it would be the North Pole here on Earth.

(Artist impression of the Mars InSight lander on route to Mars now drilling down into the rock, but this is still nowhere near enough depth needed to get to the subsurface lake)

So yes a great and impressive discovery by the Europeans but still many more years to go until all of the questions are answered.

Rob.

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