Planetary heat flow from shallow subsurface measurements: Mars

Present-day heat flow model of Mars

Until the acquisition of in-situ measurements, the study of the present-day heat flow of Mars must rely on indirect methods, mainly based on the relation between the thermal state of the lithosphere and its mechanical strength, or on theoretical models of internal evolution. Here, we present a first-order global model for the present-day surface heat flow for Mars, based on the radiogenic heat ...

Exploring the Shallow Subsurface of Mars with Imaging Radar: Scientific Promise and Technical Rationale

Drilling Automation for Subsurface Planetary Exploration

Future in-situ lunar/martian resource utilization and characterization, as well as the scientific search for life on Mars, will require access to the subsurface and hence drilling. Drilling on Earth is hard – an art form more than an engineering discipline. The limited mass, energy and manpower in planetary drilling situations makes application of terrestrial drilling techniques problematic. Th...

Simulating heat transport of harmonic temperature signals in the Earth’s shallow subsurface: Lower-boundary sensitivities

[1] We assess the sensitivity of a subsurface thermodynamic model to the depth of its lower-boundary condition. Analytic solutions to the one-dimensional thermal diffusion equation demonstrate that boundary conditions imposed at shallow depths (2–20 m) corrupt the amplitudes and phases of propagating temperature signals. The presented solutions are for: 1) a homogeneous infinite half-space driv...

Radar soundings of the subsurface of Mars.

The martian subsurface has been probed to kilometer depths by the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding instrument aboard the Mars Express orbiter. Signals penetrate the polar layered deposits, probably imaging the base of the deposits. Data from the northern lowlands of Chryse Planitia have revealed a shallowly buried quasi-circular structure about 250 kilometers in diame...