Exploring Water on Mars: History, Evidence, and Future Missions

Mars, often envisioned as dry and desolate, possesses a history rich with water. Evidence suggests that liquid water, crucial for life, once flowed abundantly across its now-barren landscape.

Curiosity Rover's imagery unveiled dried riverbeds and mineral deposits, hallmarks of ancient water flows. These suggest Mars had potentially habitable environments billions of years ago.

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spotted dark streaks on slopes, hypothesized as seasonal water flows. These 'Recurring Slope Lineae' might be salty brine, reducing freezing points, hinting at liquid's presence.

Radar data from the Mars Express spacecraft indicates vast subsurface lakes beneath the South Polar ice cap. If confirmed, these could be reservoirs of liquid water.

Perchlorates in Martian soil could lower water's freezing point significantly, allowing brines to remain liquid even at -70°C, posing intriguing implications for extremophile survival.

NASA's Mars 2020 mission and ESA's ExoMars aim to explore and drill into Martian surface, seeking signs of past or present life, potentially revolutionizing our understanding of Martian water.

Discovering stable water sources on Mars is vital for potential terraforming. It could support agriculture, human settlement, and provide insights into Earth's future and past.

Ancient Mars may have experienced mega-tsunamis over 100 meters high, triggered by asteroid impacts in its northern ocean, reshaping the Martian landscape dramatically.