Mars may have vast underground oceans and enough H2O to make it a water world Mars may still be home to oceanic quantities of liquid water, according to a recent paper published by the National Science Review. Titled “Seismic evidence of liquid water at the base of Mars' upper crust”, the paper [PDF] notes that liquid water once flowed freely on the surface of Mars before the planet’s magnetic field …
That's why the Man in the Moon appears to be smiling ..... cos He's just saying Cheeeeeeese!
This is a technical solution that was derived from a meta analysis of a number of studies of the Man in the Moon.
If the theory that it is actually a Woman in the Moon is proven then the most likely reason for the smile is that She is amused by the antics of the tiny little humans scrabbling over the face of the Earth!
Were you referring to "Music for Space Travellers"? "Blue Mars" ?
(Mind you, good luck humming along to it ... )
Surely the problem of drilling into Mars is largely a logistical one? If we can get the equipment to Mars then wouldn’t it be easier to drill than Earth? Mars is cooler and less geologically active. I thought that the reason we had to give up on drilling on Earth after only 12K or so was because of the huge temperatures being encountered - not a problem that we’ll face on Mars.
Of course, we still need to get a rig there. That could be tricky!
Genuine question by the way - please educate me. I’m not a geologist or rocket scientist or anything other than a software developer!
> then wouldn’t it be easier to drill than Earth?
No, not at all.
First off, the drilling equipment would need to be designed to operate in a near-vacuum environment (Mars atmospheric density is ~0.3% that of Earth). Meaning any liquid (like lubricants or hydraulic fluid) will be hell to handle. Drilling equipment tends to need ALOT of those. Good luck drilling anything, if your equipments lubricant film just evaporates away constantly.
Second, the coolness is itself going to be a problem; mean temp. avg on Mars is -62 °C. So your drilling equipment will *also* need to be designed to operate at essentially arctic temperature levels. Which, again, plays hell with alot of systems, including lubrication, motors, circuitry, it has an effect on how materials behave, etc.
Third, Mars is covered not in sand, but powdered regolith. Think dust-sized tiny shards of glass and asbestos, with razor sharp edges. And since it is also freeze dried, it easily gets statically charged, clinging to absolutely every surface. Remember how military vessels constantly experience failures in deserts? Like that, but a million times worse.
Number four: Energy. Drilling requires ALOT of it, and whatever energy source it uses needs high energy densities as well. On earth, we solve this by burning fossil fuels. There are none on Mars.
And lastly, yes it is a problem of logistics, but that problem is simply not solveable. Imagine what drilling gear to reach such depths requires in material to build. Now imagine all the scaffolding, machines, tools, storage, spare parts, etc. required to build the thing. Now imagine all the people required, and the food, water and toilet paper they need. Now imagine all the gear and materials required to build the energy infrastructure for the drilling, and maintaining that.
We are talking about millions of tons of payload here.
Replying to my own post here as an addendum.
Even if we ignore all I covered above, there is yet another, bigger-picture question to answer:
WHAT'S THE POINT?
What's the point in drilling for water on Mars? We cannot "terraform" it, it's impossible. Even IF there is that much water on Mars, and even IF we could somehow get it all out...what then? Let me tell you what happens next: The water immediately evaporates in the low-density atmosphere as steam. Okay, steam ... doesn't really do anything for us. So lets say that we can somehow separate a planets worth of water into H and O (we can't, but lets just assume for a moment). Let's further assume that we can somehow magic-away the Hydrogen.
Now what? We would create an Oxygen-Only Atmosphere, which is highly toxic to most life, including humans. Earths atmosphere is mostly Nitrogen. Where does that come from on Mars?
But it gets worse, because: the atmosphere wouldn't be stable. Mars has no active core, meaning no magnetic field to speak of, meaning no protection from solar winds. Remember that I said Mars has 0.3% the atmospheric pressure of Earth? Why is that, it has 1/3rd the gravity, right? Because, without a magnetic field protecting a planet from them, solar winds simply shred its atmosphere away piecemeal, like a cosmic rasp.
So even IF there is that much water, and even IF we could get it out, and even IF we could transform it to Oxygen, and even IF we also found a way to get lots of Nitrogen or other inert gas...
...we still couldn't build an atmosphere, because restarting a planets core, is simply not something a species that has not even reached level 1 on the Kardashev scale yet, is capable of.
> Mars has no active core, meaning no magnetic field to speak of, meaning no protection from solar winds
That's simple, just bash a big asteroid from the asteroid belt into it so remelt it down to the core ...OK it night take a sequence of smaller ones....and take a while to cool down again
Just don't mess with the orbit too much...
I'm pretty sure Elon would propose robots, not peons. He'll be happy to sell you those robots in a few "weeks". Just as soon as the techies get the last few bugs ironed out.
NOTE: In Muskspeak all times are relativistically compressed. A "week" is a period of time somewhere between several; months and 10000 years.
The internal heat of Earth and presumably Mars is presumed to be generated by decay of radioactive elements. So Mars, like Earth, presumably is warmer at depth. OTOH, Mars possibly has fewer radioactive elements per unit volume than Earth and it certainly has a higher ratio of radiating surface area to internal volume. So probably it doesn't warm up underground as quickly as Earth does.
BTW, That water likely wouldn't stay liquid very long if brought to the surface. Mars gets only half the solar radiation Earth gets. Like Elton John says, It's no place to raise your kids and it's cold as hell.
" ... and absence of local hardware stores."
Just drop even a slight hint that a competing hardware store might be in the area and Bunnings will build a mega warehouse quick as a flash: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-13/bunnings-warehouse-competitors-suppliers-four-corners/105281266
Problem sorted.
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