{"id":17855,"date":"2019-12-16T23:33:45","date_gmt":"2019-12-16T15:33:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/map-of-water-ice-on-mars-shows-where-nasa-and-spacex-are-likely-to-send-their-first-astronauts\/"},"modified":"2019-12-16T23:33:45","modified_gmt":"2019-12-16T15:33:45","slug":"map-of-water-ice-on-mars-shows-where-nasa-and-spacex-are-likely-to-send-their-first-astronauts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/map-of-water-ice-on-mars-shows-where-nasa-and-spacex-are-likely-to-send-their-first-astronauts\/","title":{"rendered":"Map of water ice on Mars shows where NASA (and SpaceX) are likely to send their first astronauts"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_538022\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-538022\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-538022\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/191216-arcadia3-630x359.jpg\" alt=\"Mars' Arcadia Planitia\" width=\"630\" height=\"359\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/191216-arcadia3-630x359.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/191216-arcadia3-1260x718.jpg 1260w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/191216-arcadia3-768x437.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/191216-arcadia3.jpg 1264w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-538022\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The area of Mars outlined by the white box, in Arcadia Planitia, is considered a tempting target for human settlement due to the availability of water ice. (NASA \/ JPL-Caltech Graphic)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A newly published survey pinpointing where Martian water ice is likely to lie close to the surface could serve as a roadmap for establishing the first human settlement.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The survey, published in Geophysical Research Letters, is based on readings from the Mars Climate Sounder on NASA\u2019s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, plus the Thermal Emission Imaging System and Gamma Ray Spectrometer on the Mars Odyssey orbiter. Those readings point to water ice deposits that could lie within a foot, or even an inch, of the surface. \u201cYou wouldn\u2019t need a backhoe to dig up this ice. You could use a shovel,\u201d the survey\u2019s lead author, Sylvain Piqueux of NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in a news release.<\/li>\n<li>Such ice would be a valuable resource for a Martian settlement \u2014 not only because it would provide drinking water, but also because the H<sub>2<\/sub>O could be converted into breathable oxygen as well as rocket fuel. A region known as Arcadia Planitia, in Mars\u2019 northern hemisphere, emerged as the most tempting target. That same region was the focus of a picture-taking campaign a few months ago, aimed at selecting sites for future human missions.<\/li>\n<li>NASA has been working with SpaceX on the issue of Martian site selection. NASA says it plans to start sending astronauts to Mars and its moons in the 2030s, while SpaceX is targeting an even earlier time frame. If all proceeds according to plan, SpaceX would start sending its Starship super-rocket to Mars in the mid-2020s, with an initial robotic mission setting the stage for the first human settlers to follow.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<figure id=\"attachment_538023\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-538023\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-538023\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/191216-mars1-630x281.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"630\" height=\"281\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/191216-mars1-630x281.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/191216-mars1-1260x562.jpg 1260w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/191216-mars1-768x343.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/191216-mars1-1536x685.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/191216-mars1.jpg 1614w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-538023\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">This color-coded map shows underground water ice on Mars. Cool colors are closer to the surface than warm colors. Black zones indicate areas where a spacecraft would sink into fine dust. The outlined box represents the ideal region to send astronauts for them to dig up water ice. Click on the image for a larger version. (NASA \/ JPL-Caltech \/ ASU Graphic)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The area of Mars outlined by the white box, in Arcadia Planitia, is considered a tempting target for human settlement due to the availability of water ice. (NASA \/ JPL-Caltech Graphic) A newly published survey pinpointing where Martian water ice is likely to lie close to the surface could serve as a roadmap for establishing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[367,190,4907,316],"class_list":["post-17855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-mars","tag-nasa","tag-settlement","tag-spacex"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17855"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17855\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}