Availability of subsurface water-ice resources in the northern mid-latitudes of Mars

Multiple nations and private entities are pushing to make landing humans on Mars a reality. The majority of proposed mission architectures envision 'living off the land' by leveraging Martian water-ice deposits for fuel production and other purposes. Fortunately for mission designers, water ice exists on Mars in plentiful volumes. The challenge is isolating accessible ice deposits within regions that optimize other preferred landing-site conditions. Here we present the first results of the Mars Subsurface Water Ice Mapping (SWIM) project, which has the aim of searching for buried ice resources across the mid-latitudes. Through the integration of orbital datasets in concert with new data-processing techniques, the SWIM project assesses the likelihood of ice by quantifying the consistency of multiple, independent data sources with the presence of ice. Concentrating our efforts across the majority of the northern hemisphere, our composite ice-consistency maps indicate that the broad plains of Arcadia and the extensive glacial networks across Deuteronilus Mensae match the greatest number of remote-sensing criteria for accessible ice-rich, subsurface material situated equatorwards of the contemporary ice-stability zone. The Mars Subsurface Water Ice Mapping (SWIM) project aims at determining the regions where near-surface ice is most likely to be present, according to the combination of all the available datasets. Focusing on the northern mid-latitudes, they identify in particular Deuteronilus Mensae and Arcadia Planitia as promising sites.

Automated summary

Multiple nations and private entities are working towards landing humans on Mars by utilizing Martian water-ice deposits for fuel production. The challenge lies in isolating accessible ice deposits within regions that optimize other preferred landing-site conditions. Through the SWIM project, they aim to determine the most likely regions for near-surface ice presence in the northern mid-latitudes.