ESA - Mars Express - Was there water on early Mars?

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Was there water on early Mars?

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Valley networks, like these photographed by NASA’s Viking mission, suggest that rivers once flowed on Mars.

Credits: NASA

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In mid 2000 NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft reported what looked like evidence of water seeping up to the surface relatively recently.

Credits: NASA/MGS

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Artist’s impression of water under the martian surface. If underground aquifers like that really do exist, Mars Express has a good chance of finding them. The implications for human exploration and eventual colonisation of the red planet would be far-reaching.

Credits: Illustration by Medialab, ESA 2001

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Perceptions have changed about how much water may have existed on early Mars. In 1970, scientists thought there may have been enough to support life - but only just. Over the next 30 years, their ideas about the planet have evolved gradually after each mission to Mars to include the presence of ever more water. If Mars really was as wet as many now think it could have been, early Martians would have been well advised to have their deep-sea diving gear to hand!

Credits: Illustration by Teemu Makinen. Courtesy of the Finnish Meteorological Institute

Last update: 2 November 2004

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Mars Express instruments The search for life Chances of life are linked to water Signatures of life Geography of Mars