ESA Science & Technology - Mars Exploration: Going Underground

Publication date: 20 May 2005

Authors: Reichhardt, T.

Journal: Nature
Volume: 435
Issue: 7040
Page: 266-267
Year: 2005

Copyright: Nature Publishing Group

Photographs of the martian surface are undeniably beautiful, but uncovering the truth behind the sinuous river beds and suggestive gullies is not easy. Spacecraft and rover missions have turned up plenty of evidence that water once flowed on Mars, but today the planet's surface is bone dry. There is water ice at the poles and hints of a frozen sea near the equator - but any large reservoirs of water are likely to be kilometres down where conditions are warmer. So the hunt for liquid water, which might provide a habitat for martian life, has gone underground.