JavaScript Required

Jumpseat Aerospace News requires JavaScript to function. Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings to continue.

Drones May Help Astronauts Find Water on Mars

April 28, 2026

2 min read

Key Takeaways

Drones with ground-penetrating radar may locate water on Mars.
University of Arizona tested technology on glaciers in Alaska and Wyoming.
Drones can map thickness of rocky material covering buried ice.
Method could guide future drilling missions on Mars.

Silver membership required Upgrade to Silver to access Key Takeaways.

Upgrade

Strategic Implications

This research may indicate a new approach to resource scouting on Mars, suggesting drones could play a critical role in future missions. The capability to map subsurface water could significantly enhance the feasibility of long-term human presence on the planet, which could have implications for NASA's and other space agencies' plans for Mars exploration.

Silver membership required Upgrade to Silver to access Strategic Implications.

Upgrade

What Happened

University Of Arizona Research Explores New Method For Locating Subsurface Water

Researchers from the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory have demonstrated that drones equipped with ground-penetrating radar can help locate water beneath the surface of Mars. The team tested the technology by flying drones over debris-covered glaciers in Alaska and Wyoming, successfully mapping the thickness of rocky material covering buried ice. This capability could guide future drilling missions on the Red Planet, where water ice could serve multiple purposes for astronauts. The study was published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, as reported by AeroTime.

Source

Companies Mentioned