Water Found in Martian Soil

Ursa major

Ursa major

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NASA has reported some of its findings from the Curiosity rover:




From the BBC article:
Curiosity researcher Laurie Leshin and colleagues tell Science Magazine that Mars' dusty red covering holds about 2% by weight of water.

This could be a useful resource for future astronauts, they say.

"If you think about a cubic foot of this dirt and you just heat it a little bit - a few hundred degrees - you'll actually get off about two pints of water - like two water bottles you'd take to the gym," Dr Leshin explained.

"And this dirt on Mars is interesting because it seems to be about the same everywhere you go. If you are a human explorer, this is really good news because you can quite easily extract water from almost anywhere."
Click to expand...
 
That's for sure.

I don't think we'll see astronauts on any planet or the moon in our lifetime. Perhaps a hundred years (or more) from now.
 
Oh, lordy, not another of these "MArs is covered in water" stories.

They did one a few years ago where someone at NASA claimed there was enough water in Martian ice to drink straight. BEfore another colleague corrected that you'd be poisoned if you did.
 
Yeah, see?


I've never had doubt about being able to set foot on our small red neighbor. The trick is, surviving upon it. Which is what this is supposed to be, I think; an experimental colony.
 
I said:
They did one a few years ago where someone at NASA claimed there was enough water in Martian ice to drink straight. BEfore another colleague corrected that you'd be poisoned if you did.
Click to expand...
Given that you have to heat the soil to hundreds of degrees, the water will be released as steam. And while distilled water doesn't taste particularly nice, it shouldn't be poisonous.
 
Not pure distilled water, no. And with the proper supplies-which I should guess that their transport-living quarters would have solar panels for electrical energy-you can easily heat things to that high a temperature and then be able to catch steam.
 
a steam distillation process much like what they use to extract the oil from the tar sands. However, there is a lot of unwanted particulate that is dissolved in any water. Making potable drinking water from sea water is child's play in comparison to what can attach in a chemically hostile environment.
 
Please don't mention perchlorates; otherwise some people may get overexcited:
...ammonium perchlorate is also a component of solid rocket fuel. Lithium perchlorate, which decomposes exothermically to produce oxygen, is used in oxygen "candles" on spacecraft, submarines, and in other situations where a reliable backup oxygen supply is needed.
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From the introductory paragraph of the Wiki article on perchlorates.
 
Okay, so there are a few problems to be overcome before the stuff could actually be drunk but it's a darn sight better than there being no water at all. :)

This is a step in the right direction.

BTW does anyone know what percentage of water by weight of does, say, the Sahara hold or, for that matter, an average field in Britain?
 
According to this website:
The water content in soil is also known as moisture content and can be expressed as:

....w = 100 Mw/Ms (1)

....where
........w = moisture content (%)
........Mw = mass of water in soil (kg, lb)
........Ms = dry mass of soil (kg, lb)

The water content test according ASTM D 2216-92 consists of determining the mass of the wet soil specimen and then drying the soil in an oven 12 - 16 hours at a temperature of 110°C.

Values can vary from essentially 0% (near surface rubble, gravel or clean sand) up to 1200% (organic soil like fibrous peat).
Click to expand...
 
I don't find this very unusual or exciting. You can see from some geomorphological features on Mars that water was once present, in quite large amounts, so the fact that some still remains isn't strange. As others have pointed out, while it is undoubtedly there, extracting it from the soil/rock/substrate is not particularly easy. If it were easy then it would probably have already have boiled away.

It seems to be becoming clear that Mars was once a planet with an atmosphere and liquid water. Some think that life may have originated on Mars and then seeded the Earth. However, that was a long time ago.
 
Karn Maeshalanadae said:
Yeah, see?

I've never had doubt about being able to set foot on our small red neighbor. The trick is, surviving upon it. Which is what this is supposed to be, I think; an experimental colony.
Click to expand...

Yep, it's a one way ticket (set for ten years from now - I'll probably have forgotten about it by then). The scary thought is, if they need help, it wouldn't be there for months.

BTW - I found water in my basement, so I'll phone NASA. :rolleyes:
 
I wonder how pure Martian water would be in comparison to what we drink right now, right here on good ol' planet earth. The quality of drinking water even in the industrialized countries is suspicious at best.

Want a good scary story. Check out what is in the water that comes out of your typical tap!
 
As it is not freestanding water, it's purity is a little meaningless. In fact it would be more meaningful to describe the water as an impurity in the soil/rock! By the time it has gone through whatever techniques might be used to extract it I think you can safely say it will be nothing but H2O.
 
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