Mars Curiosity Rover Discovers Water on Mars

Even though it is not constantly making headlines in the mainstream media, it seems that the Mars Rover, Curiosity, is steadily making discoveries while on its exploration mission across the red planet.

Its most recent find is that there is a surprising amount of water on Mars. The water is not in the form of oceans or lakes, but actually locked in the soil itself. Even though it is not in the form of a liquid, the presence of water on Mars has some strong implications for future astronauts. What does it mean now that Curiosity has found water on Mars?

Water in the Soil

Last month, it was reported that the Mars rover found water locked away in the planet’s soil. When Curiosity took a soil sample and heated it several hundred degrees, the rover’s sensor discovered that the most abundant vapor that was emitted was water vapor.

It appears that the soil is about 2% H20 by weight. Due to the consistency of the soil’s chemical make-up, this water could be extracted from just Read more…