ACTIVE_MARS · Active Surface Processes On Mars: A Laboratory, Field And Remote Sensing Study

Active Surface Processes On Mars: A Laboratory, Field And Remote Sensing Study

The goal of this project was to analyze ongoing geological activity across the whole of Mars. The project was firstly focused on in situ measurements of terrestrial dust devils (small whirlwinds entrained with dust and sand) and their implications to Mars (Figs. 1, 2). On Mars, dust devils are the most widespread annual activity. They erode and transport dust and sand and it is thought that they contribute up to 50% of the material of the global dust content in the atmosphere. During this project we got new insights into the internal structure of dust devils. Furthermore, we measured directly pressure drops triggered by dust devils, as well as their vertical and horizontal wind speeds. These results can be directly compared to meteorological datasets acquired from landers on Mars to estimate the dimensions, strengths, and the general appearance of dust devils. This will be important for future Mars missions because dust devils could be harmless and even helpful (cleaning of landers by blowing away deposited dust on solar panels), but also harmful because they can transport particles into the smallest gaps of instruments on Mars and they have also an influence on the local climate and weather. Up to date knowledge about terrestrial and martian dust devils is limited, but as seen above, it is worth knowing more them. The second focus of the proposal was to analyze current mass wasting features on the surface of Mars. The widely accepted knowledge is that water is a very unlikely medium to transport large volumes of sediment because of the limited amount of liquid water available on the martian surface. But with our unique experiments performed in the Mars Environment Chamber (Figs. 3, 4), we have found evidence against this paradigm because we have observed a new transport mechanism triggered by liquid water under low pressure which is not possible on Earth. Liquid water transportation of sediment down a slope on Mars could be possible, even with low amounts of water because water will boil at very low surface temperatures (slightly above zero). That means that less water is needed to transport material on Mars. Our findings are important for the discovery of triggering mechanisms for currently-observed martian mass wasting features, as well as to identify possible liquid water reservoirs and their volume estimations on Mars. For future (manned) missions to Mars it is vital to know where we can find water at the near surface and how much of it is available. Our results are one step further for the understanding of the complex behavior of liquids on this planet.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз