A Blue Red Planet

Two students at the University of Texas, Austin, recently co-authored a paper that provides crucial analytical tools for understanding the planet Mars, tools which not only help us better understand the cosmos, but also have repercussions for future missions to the red planet.

Mars is an arid wasteland, a great red desert. Geographical evidence, however, indicates that it was once covered with lakes, rivers, and perhaps even oceans similar to those on Earth. These bodies of water have long since disappeared, but we can learn a great deal about them both by studying the lay of the planet’s land, and by trying to understand how the water cycle (the motion of water between the air, surface, and underground) worked. By learning about that cycle, we can in turn understand what Mars may once have looked like, what it looks like now, and even where there may still be life.

As mentioned above, two students, Mohammad Afzal Shadab and Eric Hiatt, working in the laboratory of Professor Marc Hesse, co-authored a paper that was published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. The paper demonstrates a new set of equations describing Mars’ ancient water systems. Those systems are composed of three main parts: surface water, like lakes and rivers; water present in the atmosphere; and groundwater, which is, as the name suggests, water in the ground. These three components are in constant interaction, with water moving between them at every moment. The water in the air precipitates onto the surface, and then either flows across it, creating runoff, or soaks into it, a process known as infiltration.

Shadab and Hiatt realized that one component of this process, infiltration, was being modeled incorrectly. Older descriptions of Mars’ water cycle represented infiltration as if it were constant across all areas of the planet and at all depths. In reality, however, numerous factors go into determining the rate of infiltration. On top of that, infiltration affects certain aspects of the cycle which can themselves affect it, creating a cascading effect. This means that older models of the ancient Mars water cycle are flawed, and thus fail to fully predict important geographical and biological realities of the current state of the red planet.

Better understanding Martian geography will be extremely useful if manned missions are ever sent to Mars. This improved understanding could determine suitable landing locations, help with navigation, and even prevent areas that still have some water from being contaminated by bacteria from Earth. Furthermore, an improved geographical map has use in missions with rovers, helping prevent accidents and damage which could cost millions or even billions of dollars from issues like getting stuck in sand. Finally, perhaps the most important advantage Shadab and Hiatt’s equation gives us is a better chance of finding extraterrestrial life. If Mars still has life, it’ll be in the small pockets of water still present beneath the planet’s surface. The location and composition of those pockets will be determined by the ancient planet’s water cycle. Understanding that cycle, then, could eventually give us our first proof of life on another planet.

Understanding the history of Mars is also important for more universal reasons. While most planets are inaccessible to us except through a telescope, Mars is close enough for us not only to send rovers to it, but also to consider sending manned missions there. It’s a whole other world ready for study, and the knowledge that can be gleaned from studying Mars is far more than just geographical. The existence of life on other planets is a question that has occurred over and over throughout history, and for good reason. Philosophy and theology would be presented with some stark new questions if there are living beings outside of Earth, even non-intelligent ones.

Those two Texas grad students, then, did us all a service with their paper, as does every scientist when he gives his research to the world. Scientific contributions both large and small improve the body of human knowledge as a whole, pressing us on towards our ultimate end of knowing, loving, and serving our Creator.

Dominic Andres | PR + Marketing