Taoyuan Nights

Space.com is reporting that absolutely astounding amounts of water have just been confirmed on Mars with the new Mars Express orbiter. There’s at least enough water in this one location to cover the entire planet’s surface 10 metres deep!

From Space.com

This is absolutely incredible news. Unbelievable news. This discovery literally makes the prospect of human colonisation of Mars both feasible and realistic, by itself.

Water is needed for everyday human survival, crop irrigation and so on, and if we can also crack the problem of managable nuclear fusion (which would provide nearly unlimited power from the deuterium that can be easily found in water), then you basically have absolutely everything you need to survive and prosper on Mars.

Dirt: to build buildings, grow plants, shelter from radiation (not much atmosphere on Mars, remember).
Water: to keep biospheres running without the need for some kind of complete water recovery.
Water: to eventually provide power via nuclear fusion. And power means crops, heating, refining, manufacturing, communications, and so on.

It’s hard to overstate the value of finding this much water on the nearest planet to earth. What a fluke! And best of all, it’s all in one place, in the form of a giant water storehouse. So it won’t even be difficult to collect and process it. Brilliant!

Even in the event that fusion doesn’t prove realistic, it has also been discovered that Mars has a geologically active core. So geothermal energy could be another option, added to the discovery of water, that makes Mars a realistic next step in space exploration. Kick ass!