“Small steps to giant leaps: deciphering the glacial history of Mars in preparation for human missions” par Frances Butcher (University of Sheffield)

More than 50 years after humans first stepped on the Moon, space agencies across the globe are looking towards humanity’s next ‘giant leap’ to Mars. Ice is abundant on Mars, and is a prime target for the first human missions, which could use ice for water resources, search for life, and extract climate records in ice cores. In this seminar we will go on a visual tour of icy landscapes on Mars, and explore what they tell us about the history of water and climate change. I will describe my latest research into abundant structures on the surfaces of Martian glaciers, what they can tell us about internal ice layering and the history of ice flow, and their implications for extracting climate records in the first ice cores from Mars.