Although scientists already knew that in Mars There is water, making it a planet with potential for human visits. A new map reveals the places where these water reserves are located.

It is about SWIM projecta NASA-funded ice and subsurface water mapping program developed using data from several NASA missions. POTincluding the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), Mars Odyssey and Mars Global Surveyor.

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The map shows that There are masses of underground frozen water in the mid-latitudes of Mars. This area is ideal for a landing for a future astronaut expedition because the thicker atmosphere causes spacecraft to slow down during descent.

The astronauts will need to land in this area that is close enough to the equator to be warm, but also close to the ice areas to be able to extract it without the water on the surface evaporating.

“The atmosphere (on Mars) is so thin that water would evaporate immediately. Underground ice, on the other hand, is kept in a safe place astronauts can drill ice cores to extract them” explained Sydney Do, the project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

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For this reason, the expert assured that “If you send people to Mars, you want to get them as close to the equator as possible.. “The less energy you have to spend on maintaining the astronauts and the warmer the equipment is, the more they have left for other things they will need.”

In a statement about the SWIM project, NASA says astronauts or robots could one day drill into ice cores in the same way scientists do on Earth, uncovering Mars’ climate history and exploring potential habitats (past or present) for microbial life . (JO)