Scientists found the perfect location on Mars where the first human settlers can live

When the first astronauts step onto the surface of Mars, they will need more than courage and curiosity. They will need water – lots of it – for drinking, breathing, growing food, and even making rocket fuel for the trip back home.

A new study led by University of Mississippi planetary geologist Erica Luzzi points to a promising source: a patch of terrain in Mars’ mid-latitudes where ice may lie just beneath the dusty soil.

Scanning Mars’ volcanic plains

Using ultra-sharp images from the HiRISE camera aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Luzzi and collaborators examined Amazonis Planitia, a broad volcanic plain straddling the planet’s equator and poles.

The pictures revealed telltale textures – fresh-looking, bright-rimmed craters, polygonal fracture patterns, and subtle undulations – that on Earth are often carved by ground ice.

The evidence indicates that pockets of water ice may lurk less than a meter below ground, shallow enough for robotic drills or future astronauts to bore into without heavy equipment.

Ice that astronauts could reach

The discovery is significant for two intertwined reasons: survival and self-sufficiency. “If we’re going to send humans to Mars, you need H₂O – and not just for drinking, but for propellant and all manner of applications,” Luzzi explained.

Hauling those tons of water from Earth would make missions prohibitively expensive. Instead, planners hope to practice in situ resource utilization, or ISRU – tapping local materials to slash launch mass and cost.

Mars is known to harbor vast stores of ice at high latitudes, especially near the poles. But those zones are bitterly cold and receive limited sunlight, making them ill-suited for solar-powered surface bases.

Near the equator, temperatures and light improve, yet the ice retreats several meters underground. Amazonis Planitia, however, sits in the climatic sweet spot.

“The mid-latitudes offer the perfect compromise –  they get enough sunlight for power, but they’re still cold enough to preserve ice near the surface,” Luzzi said. “That makes them ideal for future landing sites.”

Mapping Mars from above

HiRISE – short for High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment – can pick out objects on Mars just 30 centimeters across. In its images, Luzzi’s team identified small, sharply defined impact craters that appear to have excavated bright material before it quickly darkened.

On other parts of Mars, landers have confirmed such bright layers are ice. The researchers also saw patterned ground – networks of cracks and polygons similar to permafrost regions in Siberia and Alaska.

The team also observed multi-mile hummocks called “brain terrain,” all hinting at buried ice that expands and contracts as it seasonally warms and cools.

To strengthen the case, the scientists mapped how these features cluster on gentle slopes and in shaded hollows, places where ice could persist for millions of years despite Mars’s thin, dry atmosphere.

The experts concluded that Amazonis Planitia likely holds accessible ice suitable for ISRU, a notion that will now move higher on NASA’s list of candidate landing zones.

How astronauts survive Mars

For engineers planning a crewed mission, the numbers are daunting. Even a small expedition of four astronauts could require more than 20 tons of water over a 500-day stay. Carrying that from Earth would demand extra launch vehicles and astronomical budgets.

Polar ice is abundant but dark and frigid; equatorial ice is deep or scarce. But mid-latitude ice only a shovel’s depth away could be the Goldilocks solution.

Giacomo Nodjoumi, an expert at the Italian Space Agency, emphasized the stakes by comparing Mars logistics to lunar missions.

“For the moon, it would take us one week, more or less, to go back and forth to Earth for resupply,” said Nodjoumi. “But for Mars, it would take months. So, we have to be prepared for not having resupply from Earth for extended periods of time.”

“The most important resources are oxygen to breathe and water to drink. That’s what makes our candidate landing site really promising.”

Ice may preserve life

Water ice is interesting for more than thirsty astronauts; it could preserve signs of ancient or even present-day life.

“This also has astrobiological implications,” noted Luzzi. “On Earth, ice can preserve biomarkers of past life, and it can also host microbial populations. So, it could tell us if Mars was ever habitable.”

Accessing relatively pristine ice would let scientists analyze trapped gases or organic molecules that have been shielded from harsh surface radiation.

Verifying Mars’ icy promise

Before boots can crunch Amazonis dust, robotic scouts must verify the team’s interpretation.

Luzzi proposes orbital radar sounders – like SHARAD on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter or the future ESA-NASA Mars Ice Mapper – to probe the thickness and continuity of the buried ice.

“The next step would be radar analyses to better understand the depth and patchiness of the ice,” she said.

Variations in the “lag deposit,” a protective layer of soil and rock atop the ice, could determine whether it survives or sublimates away. “Understanding that will help us decide where a robotic precursor should land.”

Ultimately, a rover or lander equipped with a drill and spectrometers will need to sample the material directly.

“We will never be sure of something if we don’t have a rover, a lander, or a human to take real measurements. Until we go there and measure it, we won’t be 100% sure,” said Nodjoumi.

Charting the first footsteps

Humans may still be a decade or more from trekking across the Red Planet, but every new dataset refines the map of where those first habitats could thrive.

By spotlighting a neighborhood where life-giving water lies just an arm’s length below the surface, Luzzi and colleagues have given mission planners a tantalizing target. They’ve also reminded the rest of us that Mars is far from a barren wasteland.

Beneath its dusty plains, essential resources and perhaps clues to past or present life await the explorers willing to dig.

The study is published in the Journal of Geophysical Research Planets.

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