The Mars Subsurface Water Ice Mapping (SWIM) Project is a NASA-funded effort using orbital remote-sensing data to map mid-latitude buried ice as a resource to support human missions. Prior studies have investigated the presence and stability of Martian ice with a view toward understanding recent climate history. To prepare for human missions, NASA has undertaken a more resource-focused approach. We will present results from our effort to characterize buried water ice resources across all longitudes from 60ºS to 60ºN through the integration of multiple data sets to derive composite measures for the presence of accessible ice. To enable this challenging data synthesis, we assign values of ice consistency between -1 and +1 for detections of hydrogen from a neutron spectrometer, thermal behavior from various thermal spectrometers, multiscale geomorphology from imagery, and surface and subsurface echoes from a radar sounder. Faced with diverse sensing depths and footprints, we have been pursuing an optimal representation of multi-dataset ice consistency [Morgan et al., 2021, Nature Astronomy 5, 230-236; Putzig et al., in press, chapter in Badescu et al. Springer Handbook of Space Resources; Morgan et al., this meeting]. Our current formulation includes the use of weighting factors for each observation type and tuned to depth zones of interest for resource extraction, and we compare mapping results to the locations of fresh, ice-exposing impacts to verify our results (see figure). The highest ice-consistency values occur poleward of ~40 latitude, where ice is relatively shallow, but positive values extend into the ~2030 latitude zones, which are preferred for human landing sites. Our next phase of work entails higher-resolution geomorphic mapping, including an effort to delineate the equatorward boundary of buried ice. We are making Mars SWIM maps available on the project website at https://swim.psi.edu. The Mars SWIM Project is supported by NASA subcontracts at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The figure presents positive ice consistency (blue shades) for all depths in the SWIM study area. Red crosses mark locations of fresh, ice-exposing impacts, which correlate well with areas of positive ice consistency. Greyscale hillshade and topography are derived from MOLA data. Elevations > +1 km (in black) were excluded.
Mapping ice resources on Mars / Putzig, Nathaniel search by orcid; Morgan, Gareth search by orcid; Sizemore, Hanna search by orcid; Baker, David; Petersen, Eric; Pathare, Asmin; Dundas, Colin search by orcid; Bramson, Ali search by orcid; Courville, Samuel Weston; Perry, Matthew; Nerozzi, Stefano search by orcid; Bain, Zachary; Hoover, Rachael search by orcid; Campbell, Bruce search by orcid; Mastrogiuseppe, Marco search by orcid; Mellon, Michael; Seu, Roberto; Smith, Isaac. - (2021). (Intervento presentato al convegno AGU Fall Meeting tenutosi a AGU Fall Meeting 2021, held in New Orleans, LA,).
Mapping ice resources on Mars
Seu, Roberto;
2021
Abstract
The Mars Subsurface Water Ice Mapping (SWIM) Project is a NASA-funded effort using orbital remote-sensing data to map mid-latitude buried ice as a resource to support human missions. Prior studies have investigated the presence and stability of Martian ice with a view toward understanding recent climate history. To prepare for human missions, NASA has undertaken a more resource-focused approach. We will present results from our effort to characterize buried water ice resources across all longitudes from 60ºS to 60ºN through the integration of multiple data sets to derive composite measures for the presence of accessible ice. To enable this challenging data synthesis, we assign values of ice consistency between -1 and +1 for detections of hydrogen from a neutron spectrometer, thermal behavior from various thermal spectrometers, multiscale geomorphology from imagery, and surface and subsurface echoes from a radar sounder. Faced with diverse sensing depths and footprints, we have been pursuing an optimal representation of multi-dataset ice consistency [Morgan et al., 2021, Nature Astronomy 5, 230-236; Putzig et al., in press, chapter in Badescu et al. Springer Handbook of Space Resources; Morgan et al., this meeting]. Our current formulation includes the use of weighting factors for each observation type and tuned to depth zones of interest for resource extraction, and we compare mapping results to the locations of fresh, ice-exposing impacts to verify our results (see figure). The highest ice-consistency values occur poleward of ~40 latitude, where ice is relatively shallow, but positive values extend into the ~2030 latitude zones, which are preferred for human landing sites. Our next phase of work entails higher-resolution geomorphic mapping, including an effort to delineate the equatorward boundary of buried ice. We are making Mars SWIM maps available on the project website at https://swim.psi.edu. The Mars SWIM Project is supported by NASA subcontracts at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The figure presents positive ice consistency (blue shades) for all depths in the SWIM study area. Red crosses mark locations of fresh, ice-exposing impacts, which correlate well with areas of positive ice consistency. Greyscale hillshade and topography are derived from MOLA data. Elevations > +1 km (in black) were excluded.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
