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Scientists celebrate discovery of ice on Mars

Posted on: Saturday, 24 January 2004, 06:00 CST

European Space Agency scientists were last night celebrating the discovery of ice on the surface of Mars, one of the "holy grails" of space exploration that suggests the Red Planet was perhaps once awash with life-sustaining water.

The unmanned Mars Express spacecraft has relayed stunning pictures from orbit of the Martian surface showing ice gathered at the south pole, something that could provide fuel for a manned mission to the planet and aid future space exploration.

"You look at the picture ... and say this is water ice. This is the first time it's been detected on the ground.

"This is the first direct confirmation," said Mr Allen Moorhouse, manager of spacecraft operations at the agency's headquarters in the German city of Darmstadt. The discovery of water ice and carbon dioxide ice confirms what scientists have suspected for years, that the ridges and channels on the Martian surface were caused by glaciers, seas and rivers that froze or evaporated as the planet cooled.

"This strengthens hope of finding subterranean ice and even liquid water on the surface of Mars," said Mr Mike McKay, the Mars Express flight director.

He said accessible water ice would be "essential" for any future manned missions to Mars, acting as a source of hydrogen for fuel and water for the crew.

"The data from Mars Express will revolutionise our image of the Red Planet," said Ms Edelgard Bulmahn, the German Minister for Research and Education and chairwoman of the European Space Agency Council.

"Europe can be proud of this mission: Mars Express is an enormous success for the European Space Programme."

The detail of the pictures is unprecedented: for the first time the Martian surface is visible in detail down to two metres, making it possible to create a Mars flight simulator.

The camera has already photographed nearly two million square kilometres of the planet's surface and the normally reserved scientists said excitedly that the photographs may yield even more secrets in the future.

"There's going to be much more to come in the next two years. We're just lifting the corner of the curtain," said Prof David Southwood, science director of the .

Dr John Murray, a member of the stereo camera imaging team from the Department of Earth Sciences at the Open University, said: "The pictures are absolutely spectacular. If it were Earth, large buildings like Buckingham Palace would definitely be visible, and certainly roads. These are not snapshots but panoramic images in a 65 kilometre-wide strip that goes on as long as you like. We can look forwards and down, and backwards, and reconstruct the stereo image into a virtual model."

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