Sometimes space science doesn't go according to plan. Sometimes scientists think they have made a breakthrough that will make it easier for humans to expand into the universe. Science is able to correct itself in the presence of new data. New data has come in on the availability of water on the red planet and the people responsible for planning future missions will have to make a correction. Initially, there was a lot of it. At least not in the middle of the ocean.

The primary finding of the study is that.

It is not possible to directly sample whether there is water below. It does have a seismometer The seismometer was built to detect marsquakes and the energy from meteorite impacts. The events aren't broadcast directly to InSight's sensor.

UT video on ISRU on Mars

Different media have different properties when it comes to filters. Dry material would respond differently than wet material. The basis of the study was the difference.

Using data collected for other purposes, the researchers ran a series of 10,000 simulations using different types of material The media that fit the signals InSight was seeing were dry and porous.

Many scientists had expected water to be ubiquitous at the equator where InSight is located. Human life support is one of the things that water is helpful for on Mars. A wet, claylike mixture is more likely to have fossils than a dry, porous one.

NASA video describing the presence of water on Mars.

The NASA channel has a credit.

This would seem to be a blow to the explorers. There isn't likely to be enough water at the equator to support a permanent human settlement. All is not lost for the future exploration of the red planet due to the fact that there is plenty of water at the Martian poles.

Science is supposed to work like this, because of the ongoing discoveries and the use of new data that weren't intended. It's better to face the data head-on rather than ignore it, even if you don't like the answers.

You can learn more.

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