Curiosity Finds Lots of Water on Mars
Curiosity has sent a steady stream of findings back from Mars during its first year-plus on the surface of the planet. Today it unleashed more of a flood of data, as Mars Science Laboratory researchers published multiple papers outlining Curiosity's findings in the journal Science. The most attention-grabbing: There's an awful lot of water where the rover sits, and probably around the red planet.
Curiosity found concentrations of water in the martian soil as high as 2 percent by weight. At that rate, the scientists say, you could extract a couple of pints of water from every cubic foot of martian soil.
This water isn't pure ice waiting to be melted and usedmost of it is tied up with other elements, and accessing it would require heating up the dirt sample to separate the molecules. Curiosity, in fact, uses its Sample Analysis at Mars tool, or SAM, to heat the martian materials it gathers to more than 1500 degrees Fahrenheit, allowing it to isolate the sample's chemical makeup. Still, this is a remarkable amount of H20, the kind of find that should bolster hopes that martian astronauts could one day get the water they need on site, since hauling resources from Earth is hugely expensive.
The rest of the studies in Science delve deeper into Mars' geology. For instance, Curiosity found mugearite, a type of volcanic rock that is common on Earth but had never before been seen on Mars. These early studies also acted as a demonstration, showing that Curiosity's sensors and tools all work as planned. As the rover commences its drive to the 3.4 mile-tall Mt. Sharp, its primary goal, the science team can now be more selective about what targets along the way they take the time to analyze.
Space.com has lots more from London, where the Curiosity team has been presenting the rover's discoveries at the European Planetary Science Congress.