Mars rover scientist hopes to find more evidence of liquid water on the Red Planet
This low-angle self-portrait of NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover shows the vehicle at the site from which it reached down to drill into a rock target called “Buckskin”. The MAHLI camera on Curiosity’s robotic arm took multiple images on Aug. 5, 2015, which were stitched together into this selfie. (Click for full view) Photo Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Although the existence of liquid water on the Red Planet was confirmed by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) last year, the scientific community is gearing up for a more thorough analysis of the topic. This investigation could be provided by NASA’s Curiosity rover as it studies the Martian surface from its vantage point in Gale Crater.
Raina Gough of the University of Colorado Boulder, a chemist on the Curiosity rover’s research team, hopes to discover more evidence of liquid water by investigating chemical processes like deliquescence.
Deliquescence is a process in which salts absorb water vapor from the atmosphere to form a liquid solution. This could create briny liquids under conditions likely to exist, in certain times and places, on Mars’ surface.
“I will be performing laboratory experiments in which I study the deliquescence, as well as the reverse process, recrystallization, under low temperatures,” Gough told Astrowatch.net. “This will allow the determination of the conditions under which water on Mars may exist in the liquid brine phase.”
A particle deliquesces by absorbing water vapor from the atmosphere when a threshold relative humidity value is reached.
This deliquescence relative humidity (DRH) varies with salt composition as well as temperature. The reverse process, the recrystallization of a salt solution into the solid phase, is called efflorescence and occurs at the efflorescence relative humidity (ERH).
These dark, narrow, 100 meter-long streaks called recurring slope lineae, flow downhill on Mars and are inferred to have been formed by contemporary flowing water. Recently, planetary scientists detected hydrated salts on these slopes at Hale crater, corroborating their original hypothesis that the streaks are indeed formed by liquid water. The blue color seen upslope of the dark streaks are thought not to be related to their formation but instead are from the presence of the mineral pyroxene. Image & Caption Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
The scientists will us a laser-based microscopic device called the ‘Raman microscope’ to determine the DRH and ERH values of Mars relevant salts and salt mixtures under a range of low-temperature conditions. As Gough noted, knowledge of these values is necessary to predict when and where aqueous salt solutions could exist on the surface of Mars.
“In combination with the Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) data, this may enable prediction of when and where a brine may exist at the landing site,” Gough said. “This information can be utilized to guide the Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN), Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) and maybe ChemCam analytical strategies to possibly detect or constrain the presence and duration of small amounts of liquid water in Gale Crater.”
The REMS instrument on board Curiosity provides daily and seasonal reports on atmospheric pressure, humidity, ultraviolet radiation at the Martian surface, wind speed and direction, air temperature, and ground temperature around the rover.
DAN is a pulsing neutron generator sensitive enough to detect water content as low as one-tenth of one percent and resolve layers of water and ice beneath the surface.
The SAM instrument is capable of detecting organic compounds like methane as well as light elements, such as hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, associated with life.
Those instruments are complemented by ChemCam, which fires a laser and analyzes the elemental composition of vaporized materials—recognizing ice and minerals with water molecules in their crystal structures.
Gough will try to determine how the salts present on Mars and at Gale Crater, in particular, may facilitate the formation and stability of liquid brine due to deliquescence.
“Perchlorate salts are very deliquescent, even at low temperatures!” Gough said. “The amount of liquid water formed may be small because there is not very much water vapor in the atmosphere, but the presence of any liquid water would be very interesting for many reasons and applications like habitability, understanding the hydrological cycle and maybe even human exploration.”
Perchlorates have been seen on Mars before. NASA’s Phoenix lander and Curiosity rover both found them in the planet’s regolith and some scientists believe that the Viking missions in the 1970s measured signatures of these salts.
The study of Martian downhill flows, known as recurring slope lineae, was conducted in 2015. It detected perchlorates, in hydrated form, in different areas than those explored by the landers. This was also the first time perchlorates have been identified from orbit. Now scientists hope for new findings from instruments on the ground.
Tomasz Nowakowski
Tomasz Nowakowski is the owner of Astro Watch, one of the premier astronomy and science-related blogs on the internet. Nowakowski reached out to SpaceFlight Insider in an effort to have the two space-related websites collaborate. Nowakowski's generous offer was gratefully received with the two organizations now working to better relay important developments as they pertain to space exploration.
