Mars — California’s Possible Salvation?
"Do you think Mars will share?" (Original Work by Christine Do)
It has been three years since California began enduring its devastating drought. Rain seasons are never any help and citizens throughout the state are trying to stay hopeful for the promised El Niño later this year. There is a great chance that the El Niño will bring more precipitation to our forecast, possibly helping us out with our drought.
But who needs to wait for the El Niño when there’s water on Mars?
On September 28, NASA released evidence that Mars is flowing with water! Don’t believe it? Since 2006, NASA has been studying the red planet by a satellite called the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). The lead scientist behind the evidence is Lujendra Ojha, a graduate student at the Georgia Institute of Technology. It took him five years to confirm the information.
Look at the one of the gorgeous pictures taken of Mars’s surface.
This photo was enhanced with an orthorectified false color image on a Digital Terrain Model (DTM) (Photo Credits: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)
The black streaks on the mountains are known as recurring slope lineae. They are the pure evidence that water is coarsing through Mars’ “veins.” These black streaks are not formed by ordinary minerals, rather, by hydrated minerals. According to Ojha’s interview with NPR, these streaks are always moving in accordance to the sun, “form[ing] on slopes that get the most amount of sunlight.” The streaks expand when Mars experiences warm temperatures and shrinks when Mars gets cold, showing the water’s reactions toward the Sun and the changing temperature.
So is the water safe to drink? Is there enough water to provide for California?
To answer the first question—no. According to NPR, the amount of water present on Mars’ surface is “like splashing a bit of water out of a bottle onto a hot, sandy beach.” That’s not to enough replace the 63 trillion gallons lost in the last three years. And besides, the Mars water is very salty and is filled with perchlorates toxic to our health. How bad is it? According to the Huffington Post, a sip of Mars water can cause thyroid problems and can cause damage to our “gastrointestinal tract, breast tissue, and the placenta.” To include, the saltiness of Mars’ water is saltier than Don Juan Pond, the saltiest body of water that exists on our planet with the percentage of 44.2% salinity. To put this into perspective, our ocean waters’ salinity is only 3%. So, if you’ve already had a taste of the ocean, would you really want a taste of Mars?
Even though there are many methods to turn salt water into purified water such as desalinization, these methods would require way more energy than we can exert to convert the water.
Darn.
But even if we are able to access Mars’ water, is it right? In my opinion, it’s not. What happens if we are extracting a valuable yet limited resources to the possible existing microorganisms? I believe that we should leave Mars alone. Whatever we have on Earth should not disturb the native environment on Mars. We should allow Mars to flourish and keep a close eye on its progress. Taking away water would hinder Mars development.
For now, all we can do is conserve water as best as we can and wait for the El Niño later this year.