Whether you’re thinking about the future of Mars and how to send humans there, or trying to understand its past and see how the planet became the way it is today, one particular feature is crucially important: water. Scientists know that there was once abundant water on Mars, but over time this evaporated away and left the planet a dry husk, with little to no liquid water on its surface today.
The map shows not only the locations of these minerals but also how abundant they are. And one of the biggest findings is that these minerals aren’t rare — in fact, there are hundreds of thousands of patches of minerals across the planet. This map is useful for assessing potential landing sites for future missions, whether crewed or robotic. Human crews will need to access water for a long-term Mars mission, and one way to do that is to bake aqueous minerals to extract the water they contain. But the clays are of scientific interest for robotic missions as well, as they are great for looking for signs of ancient life.
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