The Hindu : The water of life

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Saturday, Jun 01, 2002

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The water of life

THE IDEA OF Martians developed from the longstanding astronomical belief that there could be life on the Red Planet. The popular notion that Mars was like the Earth, wet, warm and green, persisted for years before the first missions to the planet revealed a cold, dry, desolate landscape, pitted with extinct volcanoes and pockmarked with craters. Later missions suggested that the planet's uneven terrain was once host to a web of intricate river systems and lakes, possibly even an ocean. The question was: where did all this water go? Recent hints that a lot of this water lies just beneath the desolate Martian landscape have been conclusively confirmed by NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft, which has detected a virtual reservoir of ice, in quantities much larger than expected and at depths (one to two feet) somewhat shallower than assumed.

So what does all this mean? Well, for starters, the finding lends support to the theory that like Earth, Mars was once wet and warm — the two conditions which are critical for life. The fact that a large amount of water in a liquid form existed on Mars raises the tantalising possibility that some of that life survives today. Our experience on earth has shown that wherever there is water, from icy seas to thermal pools, there is life. In Mars, the question is whether some microbial life — deep below the surface and warmed by the planet's core — has survived. It is a question that will occupy considerable scientific attention and influence the shape of space missions to Mars in the years to come. By providing a source of drinking water and also rocket fuel, the ice discovery could also ease a future manned mission to Mars. Already, there is speculation that NASA may now commit itself to a manned landing within the next two decades — a programme which will mean a considerable amount of effort and money.

However, immediate scientific attention will be on how to take findings of the recent discovery quickly further. Since Odyssey's gamma ray spectrometer, the suite of instruments used to make the ice discovery, is yet to be fully deployed, NASA's scientists will have better details about the chemicals on and under the surface of Mars as the spacecraft continues its three-year mission to map the planet. It is certain that Odyssey's findings will be used as a basis for all future missions, determining the selection of landing sites and marking out where samples are best collected. The existence of ice on Mars would have been conclusively demonstrated much earlier if it hadn't been for unfortunate technical snags. Two earlier Mars probes failed to come up with the goods. The first craft (Mars Observer) malfunctioned on its way down to the planet about a decade ago and the other (the Mars Polar Lander) crash-landed in the polar region of the planet. New landing probes, one of them European, are on the cards next year and the real challenge before them is clear: scoop out some of that ice and rock and return them to Earth. The chase for water on Mars is — in the final analysis — a search for extra-terrestrial life. It is a pursuit to determine a question which has puzzled scientists and gripped laymen for a long, long time: does life exists on Mars? We don't know quite yet but we have reason to be much less surprised if the answer is positive. And even if the only Martians exist in the form of microbes or in the form of dormant fossils, the discovery will have a tremendous impact on mankind. It will change the very way we look at ourselves. It will alter the very manner in which we perceive our place in the mysterious and fascinating universe.

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