Water on Mars
Agua en Marte: hielo y evidencia de agua líquida pasada
- Date
- 2004-2015 · confidence high
- Place
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, United States
- Credited to
- Rovers Spirit and Opportunity (2004), Phoenix lander (2008), Mars Express, Curiosity
- Field
- Movement
What was discovered
Opportunity found haematite and sediments formed in water; Phoenix dug up water ice in 2008; Curiosity found an ancient habitable lake in Gale crater. Mars had been a wet world.
Phoenix was directed from the University of Arizona; the rest from JPL.
What it led to
- Search for past life on Mars
- Perseverance mission and sample return
- Planning for human exploration
Built on
- Martian 'canali' and Mars mapping1877
- Mariner 9: first spacecraft in orbit around another planet14 de noviembre de 1971
- Viking: first operational Mars landers and life-detection experiments20 de julio de 1976
- Discovery of the canals of Mars (Schiaparelli, 1877)
Made possible
- Autonomous rovers