Mars Electromagnetic Sounding Experiment: MARSES

The MARSES is the sounding instrument developed of searching for water, water-ice or permafrost layers existing in some depth under the visible surface of Mars. There are many evidences that water once was abundant on Mars. There are stream lined islands formed by flowing water, flow patterns reminiscent of wadis in Earth deserts, and outflow channels thought to have been formed by sudden outrush of subterranean water. The secondary task is to measure the soil properties of the subsurface of Mars, which include porosity, electrical resistance of the liquid phase, thermal conductivity, temperature dependence. A main task of the MARSES system is to examine changes in subsurface properties of local areas regolith on the martian surface, and to relate them to optical images and other remote sensing data in order to understand the nature of different terrain forms. The dryed up regions of Martian frozen rocks is considered to have been developing during more than 3.5 bln years, so the upper layer boundary of permafrost can serve as an indicator reflecting the course of martian paleoclimate evolution. Additional information is contained in the original extended abstract.