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Surface water mapping using neutron spectrometer data from the 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter for future crewed missions to Mars

Presented by:

Elise Blanchfield

Elise Blanchfield

    RMIT University

 

Gail N. Iles

    RMIT University

 

Human exploration of Mars has been of great interest both within and outside the scientific community for decades, and has only recently become a goal of the NASA Artemis missions. Global human spaceflight plans involve permanent settlement of the Moon as preparation for creating a sustainable environment on Mars. Although crewed missions to Mars will not occur until the mid-2030s, a deepening of our understanding of resources available on Mars can be undertaken now. An extremely important resource necessary to realise a sustainable environment on Mars is water. We have conducted an analysis of the hydrogen variations on the surface of Mars due to seasonal and locational changes. Neutron spectroscopy has been utilised for this, where data was obtained from the neutron spectrometer on board the 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter. All neutron data collected by the orbiter is made available online for download on PDS Geoscience Node’s Mars Orbital Data Explorer. We have chosen approximately eight Earth years of data, from early 2013 to the beginning of 2021, which allows us to cover Martian years 32 to 35. In conducting our analysis, we have made use of coding software to produce 3-dimensional graphs for each Martian year with axes time, latitude and neutron count rate (for either thermal or epithermal neutrons). All graphs display distinct peaks at latitudes corresponding to the Martian poles during the time period relating to the warmer seasons on Mars. An analytical comparison with solar wind data confirms that changes in the neutron flux are not due to fluctuations in space radiation, but due to incoherent neutron scattering by hydrogen from the Martian surface. Our analysis confirms larger amounts of water at the poles than lower latitudes, and also generates consistent seasonal patterns on Mars.

Category:

Planets

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