The experts proceeded from the interests of security and access to water.

Scientists from laboratory of jet movement NASA have declared that they managed to find a suitable place for the landing on Mars, taking into account the interests of security and access to water. In their opinion, the first people to land in the plain area of Aracdia, which contains large reserves of easily accessible water ice, according to Naked science.

The ability to replenish the water reserves on Mars will save on the mass of the interplanetary vehicle, and hence to win in the fuel and payload. Therefore, the presence of available water is a key issue when searching for a place to land on the red planet.

Most of the ice found at the poles of Mars, but here it is impossible to land due to too harsh of conditions. The temperature in this region rarely drops below 150 degrees Celsius and the sunlight is not enough. Therefore, the researchers considered the regions that are located closer to the equator. Of these, preferable are the areas in the Northern hemisphere, which is characterized by lowland plains.

In the study, researchers examined data collected by the spacecraft Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and Mars Odyssey. Water has a high heat capacity, and its presence can be detected by a weakening of the temperature fluctuations covering its surface: in the summer it heats up weaker in the winter not time to cool down as much as devoid of moisture areas.

The researchers made a map of the distribution of subsurface ice, which showed that in the plains of Arcadia, she is hidden at a depth of several centimeters below the surface. That is, it will allow you to extract water without extra efforts and heavy equipment. In addition, analysis of ice will allow to obtain new data on climatic cycles and the past of Mars.