More Mars News
Underground Lake of Liquid Water Detected on Mars
It's possible the lake is home to micro-organisms. I don't have to spell out for you how important that would be. Even if there are no life forms in it, however, the fact that it's there is still a very big deal, because it makes construction of a permanent base on Mars much, much easier. Throughout history, when humans would migrate to unsettled areas, the very first order of business was to drill a well. If you can do that on another planet, an enormous number of potential problems suddenly cease to be problems.
Just a mile or so beneath the surface, near the south pole of Mars, there is a reservoir of briny water sloshing and churning below layers of ice and rock. This subglacial lake, discovered by a ground-penetrating radar on the Mars Express spacecraft, is about 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) wide and perhaps no more than a meter deep.
It's possible the lake is home to micro-organisms. I don't have to spell out for you how important that would be. Even if there are no life forms in it, however, the fact that it's there is still a very big deal, because it makes construction of a permanent base on Mars much, much easier. Throughout history, when humans would migrate to unsettled areas, the very first order of business was to drill a well. If you can do that on another planet, an enormous number of potential problems suddenly cease to be problems.
posted by Jar(egg)head at 12:26
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