Water Ice Permafrost on Mars and on the Moon
The Moon and Mars are the most explored planetary bodies in the solar system. For the more than 60 years of the space era, dozens of science robotic missions have explored the Moon and Mars. The primary scientific goal for many of these missions was declared to be a search for surface or ground wate...
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croxfordunivpr:10.1093/acrefore/9780190647926.013.235 2024-10-13T14:07:58+00:00 Water Ice Permafrost on Mars and on the Moon Litvak, Maxim Sanin, Anton 2022 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190647926.013.235 en eng Oxford University Press Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Planetary Science ISBN 9780190647926 reference-entry 2022 croxfordunivpr https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190647926.013.235 2024-09-17T04:27:04Z The Moon and Mars are the most explored planetary bodies in the solar system. For the more than 60 years of the space era, dozens of science robotic missions have explored the Moon and Mars. The primary scientific goal for many of these missions was declared to be a search for surface or ground water/water ice and gaining an understanding of its distribution and origin. Today, for the Moon, the focus of scientific exploration has moved to the lunar polar regions and permanently shadowed regions (PSRs). PSRs do not receive any direct sunlight and are frozen at very low temperatures (< 120 K), acting as cold traps. They are considered to be a storehouse that preserves records of the solar system’s evolution by trapping water ice and potentially other volatile deposits brought by comets and asteroids over billions of years. For Mars, the water/water ice search was part of an attempt to find traces of ancient extraterrestrial life and possibly to understand how life appeared on Earth. Current Mars is cold and dry, but its high latitudes and some equatorial regions are enriched with surface and subsurface water ice. Scientists argue that oceans could have existed on ancient Mars if it was warm and wet and that different life forms could have originated similar to Earth’s. If this is the case, then biomarkers could be preserved in the Martian ground ice depositions. Another popular idea that ties water ice permafrost on the Moon and Mars is related to the expected future human expansion to deep space. The Moon and Mars are widely considered to be the first destinations for future manned space-colony missions or even space-colony missions. In this scenario, the long-term presence and survival of astronauts on the lunar or Martian surface strongly depend on in situ resource utilization (ISRU). Water ice is at the top of the ISRU list because it could be used as water for astronauts’ needs. Its constituents, oxygen and hydrogen, could be used for breathing and for rocket fuel production, respectively. The Moon is the ... Book Part Ice permafrost Oxford University Press |
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Oxford University Press |
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English |
description |
The Moon and Mars are the most explored planetary bodies in the solar system. For the more than 60 years of the space era, dozens of science robotic missions have explored the Moon and Mars. The primary scientific goal for many of these missions was declared to be a search for surface or ground water/water ice and gaining an understanding of its distribution and origin. Today, for the Moon, the focus of scientific exploration has moved to the lunar polar regions and permanently shadowed regions (PSRs). PSRs do not receive any direct sunlight and are frozen at very low temperatures (< 120 K), acting as cold traps. They are considered to be a storehouse that preserves records of the solar system’s evolution by trapping water ice and potentially other volatile deposits brought by comets and asteroids over billions of years. For Mars, the water/water ice search was part of an attempt to find traces of ancient extraterrestrial life and possibly to understand how life appeared on Earth. Current Mars is cold and dry, but its high latitudes and some equatorial regions are enriched with surface and subsurface water ice. Scientists argue that oceans could have existed on ancient Mars if it was warm and wet and that different life forms could have originated similar to Earth’s. If this is the case, then biomarkers could be preserved in the Martian ground ice depositions. Another popular idea that ties water ice permafrost on the Moon and Mars is related to the expected future human expansion to deep space. The Moon and Mars are widely considered to be the first destinations for future manned space-colony missions or even space-colony missions. In this scenario, the long-term presence and survival of astronauts on the lunar or Martian surface strongly depend on in situ resource utilization (ISRU). Water ice is at the top of the ISRU list because it could be used as water for astronauts’ needs. Its constituents, oxygen and hydrogen, could be used for breathing and for rocket fuel production, respectively. The Moon is the ... |
format |
Book Part |
author |
Litvak, Maxim Sanin, Anton |
spellingShingle |
Litvak, Maxim Sanin, Anton Water Ice Permafrost on Mars and on the Moon |
author_facet |
Litvak, Maxim Sanin, Anton |
author_sort |
Litvak, Maxim |
title |
Water Ice Permafrost on Mars and on the Moon |
title_short |
Water Ice Permafrost on Mars and on the Moon |
title_full |
Water Ice Permafrost on Mars and on the Moon |
title_fullStr |
Water Ice Permafrost on Mars and on the Moon |
title_full_unstemmed |
Water Ice Permafrost on Mars and on the Moon |
title_sort |
water ice permafrost on mars and on the moon |
publisher |
Oxford University Press |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190647926.013.235 |
genre |
Ice permafrost |
genre_facet |
Ice permafrost |
op_source |
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Planetary Science ISBN 9780190647926 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190647926.013.235 |
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1812814549102886912 |