2024: Mars and the IsotopiC Ratio Of water: Budget and Evolution
Although Mars is now a cold, dry, and inhospitable planet, a wealth of evidence indicates that it was once much wetter and may have supported liquid water on its surface billions of years ago. Understanding how Mars lost most of its water is essential for reconstructing its climate history and assessing its past habitability. This project combined observations from recent Mars missions with advanced modeling efforts to investigate the evolution of water and its isotopes (H₂O and HDO) from the subsurface to the upper atmosphere. By studying the processes controlling isotopic fractionation and atmospheric escape, the project provided new insights into the mechanisms driving water loss on Mars and helped constrain the planet’s past water inventory and long-term evolution.
