Skip to main content

Map of Mars shows the location of ice beneath the planet’s surface

One of the challenges of sending human explorers to Mars is that, due to the logistics of the journey, they will have to be on the planet’s surface for considerably longer than the missions of a few days which have been sent to the moon in the past. That means future explorers will need access to resources like food, water, and oxygen — and rather than having to carry months’ worth of supplies through space, it’s far more efficient to find ways to produce those resources on Mars itself.

That’s the idea behind searching for water ice deposits on Mars. There’s plenty of ice on the surface around the planet’s poles, but most mission concepts are more focused on the planet’s equatorial region. The good news is that there is ice present in these areas too, but the bad news is that it’s primarily located below the surface and is thus hard to locate.

In this artist’s concept, NASA astronauts drill into the Martian subsurface. The agency has created new maps that show where ice is most likely to be easily accessible to future astronauts.
In this artist’s concept, NASA astronauts drill into the Martian subsurface. The agency has created new maps that show where ice is most likely to be easily accessible to future astronauts. NASA

Now, a NASA project called Subsurface Water Ice Mapping or SWIM has released a new set of Mars maps, showing the locations of subsurface ice. “If you send humans to Mars, you want to get them as close to the equator as you can,” said Sydney Do, SWIM project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in a statement. “The less energy you have to expend on keeping astronauts and their supporting equipment warm, the more you have for other things they’ll need.”

Recommended Videos

Previous versions of the maps used a combination of data from various missions, combining data such as radar readings and indications of hydrogen. This allowed the researchers to locate the most likely areas of ice beneath the surface. The newest maps use high-resolution cameras on the orbiting Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission to look at regions where meteoroids had struck the planet and created impact craters that revealed the ice beneath, proving its presence.

“These ice-revealing impacts provide a valuable form of ground truth in that they show us locations where the presence of ground ice is unequivocal,” said Gareth Morgan, SWIM’s co-lead at the Planetary Science Institute. “We can then use these locations to test that our mapping methods are sound.”

The blue areas on this map of Mars are regions where NASA missions have detected subsurface water ice (from the equator to 60 degrees north latitude).
The blue areas on this map of Mars are regions where NASA missions have detected subsurface water ice (from the equator to 60 degrees north latitude). Scientists can use the map – part of the Subsurface Water Ice Mapping project – to decide where the first astronauts to set foot on the Red Planet should land. NASA/JPL-Caltech/Planetary Science Institute

As well as being vital for future crewed missions, the presence of ice is relevant to the search for potential ancient life on the planet too. “In the harsh environment of the Martian surface, ice can act as a radiation shield. Biosignatures of past life in many ways are more susceptible to ionizing radiation damage than actual living organisms. So ice could preserve signatures of ancient life,” Morgan said. “Also if you can melt ice you have water of course, which is believed to be essential to life. So, in the very big picture, our maps will be of interest to exobiology studies.”

Georgina Torbet
Georgina has been the space writer at Digital Trends space writer for six years, covering human space exploration, planetary…
Curiosity rover finds tantalizing hints that Mars could once have been habitable
This graphic shows the long-chain organic molecules decane, undecane, and dodecane. These are the largest organic molecules discovered on Mars to date.

Despite its freezing temperatures, thin atmosphere, and lack of surface water today, scientists believe that Mars could once have been capable of supporting life. No one knows whether life ever did develop there (though there is almost certainly nothing alive there now), but finding out if our neighboring planet ever did host microbial life is one of the great questions in astronomy today. Now, scientists are one step closer to answering that question.

The NASA Curiosity rover has discovered the largest organic compounds ever found on Mars, suggesting that the conditions for life to develop could have been present on the planet billions of years ago. Organic compounds aren't necessarily indicators of life, but they are its building blocks, so finding these compounds in such a large and well-developed state supports the idea that it may have been possible for life to develop there.

Read more
SpaceX will launch Tesla’s humanoid Optimus robot to Mars next year
Optimus Gen 2 humanoid robot by Tesla.

The year 2025 is going to be pivotal for Tesla’s humanoid robot plans, if the words of CEO Elon Musk are to be believed. But next year could mark an astronomical milestone for the company’s Optimus robot, in quite the literal sense.
Taking to X, Musk mentioned in a post that SpaceX will put an Optimus robot on Mars atop its flagship Starship rocket by the end of 2026. Just over a week ago, the Starship broke apart following a launch test, the second such failure this year.
“Starship departs for Mars at the end of next year, carrying Optimus,” Musk wrote in a post on X. “If those landings go well, then human landings may start as soon as 2029, although 2031 is more likely.”
https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1859078074303713447

This won’t be the first time Musk is making such a claim. Back in November last year, Musk mentioned that SpaceX was capable of sending “several uncrewed Starships” to the red planet within a couple of years and that the payload would include Optimus robots.
Tesla introduced a refined version of the Optimus robot at a glitzy event late in 2024. At the event, Musk told the crowd that Optimus was “the biggest product ever of any kind.” It was later reported that the robots were remotely operated by humans at the event.
Later, during the company’s Q4 2024 earnings calls, Musk shed more light on production plans, adding that the product has a revenue potential higher than $10 trillion. He also mentioned plans to manufacture thousands of humanoid robots in 2025.

Read more
Cool space video shows star trails stretching over city lights
A screen grab from a video showing star trails stretching over city lights on Earth.

NASA astronaut Don Pettit dazzled us on Tuesday with a gorgeous image showing star trails and city lights as seen from the International Space Station (ISS).

On Wednesday, he turned the "wow" dial all the way up to 11 by sharing a video clip from which Tuesday’s image was taken.

Read more