After a recent discovery of ice sheets directly under the surface of Mars, scientists contemplate the newfound possibility of humans inhabiting the red planet.   

Nasa scientists have recently released findings from the 2016 Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), which show large amounts of ice just under the planet’s surface.  This confirms previous suspicions held that Mars has undergone some sort of climate change in its not too distant past.  The images show that the vast ice sheets are very near the surface of Mars, somewhere between 3 to 6 feet below.  

Finding ice so close to the surface makes the possibility of mankind visiting Mars a little more realistic.  If a space exploration team were able to access that ice once they arrived, they could melt it down for many applications such as drinkable water, breathable air or to make rocket fuel.  

“It’s looking more encouraging that water ice could be available at depths shallow enough that could be used as resources for human missions to Mars,” said director of the Center for Space Resources at the Colorado School of Mines Angel Abbad-Madrid.

It would be much more complicated and inconvenient for the first explorers if the water were 30 or 50 feet below, as that would involve some mining activities.  Finding it so close to the surface adds a little more credibility that water could actually be retrieved. One of the images obtained shows a sheet of ice as large as Lake Superior.

“This is a new window into ground ice on Mars,” said U.S. Geological Survey geologist and report co-author Colin Dundas.

While this new information might sound like the beginning of a sci-fi movie, the environment of the red planet is not so friendly to humans and probably will not be habitable anytime soon.  It has an average temperature of -84 degrees Fahrenheit, very little gravity, and almost no oxygen.  Even so, Nasa has announced that they are working on a current project to send humans to Mars by 2030. Their goals are to explore whether or not there is life on Mars and whether it is a candidate for future human inhabitation.