Martian aqua: occurrence of water and appraisal of acquisition technologies

V.J. Inglezakis

doi:10.1016/j.asr.2025.11.002

Martian aqua: occurrence of water and appraisal of acquisition technologies

V.J. Inglezakis^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Chemical And Process Engineering

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

1 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The production of water through in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) will be necessary for a sustainable human presence on Mars. Accessible water on Mars occurs as ice (pure and mixed with regolith), bounded water in the regolith (adsorbed and in hydrated minerals) and vapor in the atmosphere. Harvesting water from the atmosphere appears to be relatively challenging than obtaining it from the regolith. However, the potential landing sites for human exploration are unlikely to have easy access to near-surface ice of any form, while utilization of the atmosphere can be accomplished almost anywhere. Extensive research has been conducted on atmospheric water vapor, which is ubiquitous and renewable, yet provides only a thin water source across the planet. This paper provides an overview of water availability on Mars, investigates the volatiles (CO2, H2O) phase equilibria in the atmosphere-surface system of the planet, and compares water harvesting from the atmosphere to obtaining water from the regolith. The findings indicate that while atmospheric water harvesting does not appear to be feasible to serve as the primary water source, it might have potential to become a supplementary, decentralized clean water supply. Atmospheric water harvesting systems on Mars require more power and energy, but they offer greater simplicity and flexibility compared to water extraction from the regolith. This approach could prove valuable in regions where water extraction from the regolith is infeasible or as a temporary backup in the event of a primary water system failure. Such a distributed water harvesting method might enhance the resilience and flexibility of water supply systems for future human Mars missions and settlements. Ultimately, any technology developed for extraterrestrial environments can have important applications on Earth.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	635-670
Number of pages	36
Journal	Advances in Space Research
Volume	77
Issue number	1
Early online date	5 Nov 2025
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asr.2025.11.002
Publication status	Published - 1 Jan 2026

Funding

Beyond energy consumption, another reason for the unfavorable attitude toward AWH was the discovery of shallow-subsurface ice at latitudes at approximately ±40° poleward. While it seems unlikely that human mission landing sites would be at such high latitudes, a great deal of interest has been generated by evidence of shallow (<1 m) subsurface ice at lower latitudes following several observations in the decade between 2000–2010 ( Butcher, 2022 ; Morgan et al., 2021). Shallow subsurface ice was thought to exist in sufficient quantities for ISRU ( Moses and Bushnell, 2016 ) and WER gained traction. The last publication exploring AWH appears to be the conference paper of Esteban and Lee published in 2018 ( Esteban and Lee, 2018 ). This paper focused on the discovery of fog on Mars and its implications on water harvesting. The paper briefly mentions compression, as was the case of M-WIP, without any explanation why compression is needed or how the water acquisition system works. After WAVAR and MARRS, the only notable funded project related to AWH was the Habitability: Brines, Irradiation, and Temperature Instrument (HABIT) that was supported by the Swedish National Space Agency in 2015 and the UK Space Agency in 2024. However, the project objective was not to develop an ISRU system but to explore the phenomenon of deliquescence and availability of liquid water on Mars. Some data on deliquescence was published in 2019 and 2020 but without estimates of energy consumption ( Martín-Torres et al., 2020; Nazarious et al., 2019 ). It is clear that AWH has not been assessed fairly and in all its possibilities.

Keywords

ISRU
Mars
water
atmosphere
regolith

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.1016/j.asr.2025.11.002Licence: CC BY 4.0

Inglezakis-ASR-2025-Martian-aqua-occurrence-of-water-and-appraisal-of-acquisition-technologiesProof, 6.75 MBLicence: CC BY 4.0

Cite this

@article{102e1dff66d442698ce6ee2588d7218a,

title = "Martian aqua: occurrence of water and appraisal of acquisition technologies",

abstract = "The production of water through in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) will be necessary for a sustainable human presence on Mars. Accessible water on Mars occurs as ice (pure and mixed with regolith), bounded water in the regolith (adsorbed and in hydrated minerals) and vapor in the atmosphere. Harvesting water from the atmosphere appears to be relatively challenging than obtaining it from the regolith. However, the potential landing sites for human exploration are unlikely to have easy access to near-surface ice of any form, while utilization of the atmosphere can be accomplished almost anywhere. Extensive research has been conducted on atmospheric water vapor, which is ubiquitous and renewable, yet provides only a thin water source across the planet. This paper provides an overview of water availability on Mars, investigates the volatiles (CO2, H2O) phase equilibria in the atmosphere-surface system of the planet, and compares water harvesting from the atmosphere to obtaining water from the regolith. The findings indicate that while atmospheric water harvesting does not appear to be feasible to serve as the primary water source, it might have potential to become a supplementary, decentralized clean water supply. Atmospheric water harvesting systems on Mars require more power and energy, but they offer greater simplicity and flexibility compared to water extraction from the regolith. This approach could prove valuable in regions where water extraction from the regolith is infeasible or as a temporary backup in the event of a primary water system failure. Such a distributed water harvesting method might enhance the resilience and flexibility of water supply systems for future human Mars missions and settlements. Ultimately, any technology developed for extraterrestrial environments can have important applications on Earth.",

keywords = "ISRU, Mars, water, atmosphere, regolith",

author = "V.J. Inglezakis",

year = "2026",

month = jan,

day = "1",

doi = "10.1016/j.asr.2025.11.002",

language = "English",

volume = "77",

pages = "635--670",

journal = "Advances in Space Research",

issn = "0273-1177",

publisher = "Elsevier Limited",

number = "1",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Martian aqua

T2 - occurrence of water and appraisal of acquisition technologies

AU - Inglezakis, V.J.

PY - 2026/1/1

Y1 - 2026/1/1

N2 - The production of water through in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) will be necessary for a sustainable human presence on Mars. Accessible water on Mars occurs as ice (pure and mixed with regolith), bounded water in the regolith (adsorbed and in hydrated minerals) and vapor in the atmosphere. Harvesting water from the atmosphere appears to be relatively challenging than obtaining it from the regolith. However, the potential landing sites for human exploration are unlikely to have easy access to near-surface ice of any form, while utilization of the atmosphere can be accomplished almost anywhere. Extensive research has been conducted on atmospheric water vapor, which is ubiquitous and renewable, yet provides only a thin water source across the planet. This paper provides an overview of water availability on Mars, investigates the volatiles (CO2, H2O) phase equilibria in the atmosphere-surface system of the planet, and compares water harvesting from the atmosphere to obtaining water from the regolith. The findings indicate that while atmospheric water harvesting does not appear to be feasible to serve as the primary water source, it might have potential to become a supplementary, decentralized clean water supply. Atmospheric water harvesting systems on Mars require more power and energy, but they offer greater simplicity and flexibility compared to water extraction from the regolith. This approach could prove valuable in regions where water extraction from the regolith is infeasible or as a temporary backup in the event of a primary water system failure. Such a distributed water harvesting method might enhance the resilience and flexibility of water supply systems for future human Mars missions and settlements. Ultimately, any technology developed for extraterrestrial environments can have important applications on Earth.

AB - The production of water through in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) will be necessary for a sustainable human presence on Mars. Accessible water on Mars occurs as ice (pure and mixed with regolith), bounded water in the regolith (adsorbed and in hydrated minerals) and vapor in the atmosphere. Harvesting water from the atmosphere appears to be relatively challenging than obtaining it from the regolith. However, the potential landing sites for human exploration are unlikely to have easy access to near-surface ice of any form, while utilization of the atmosphere can be accomplished almost anywhere. Extensive research has been conducted on atmospheric water vapor, which is ubiquitous and renewable, yet provides only a thin water source across the planet. This paper provides an overview of water availability on Mars, investigates the volatiles (CO2, H2O) phase equilibria in the atmosphere-surface system of the planet, and compares water harvesting from the atmosphere to obtaining water from the regolith. The findings indicate that while atmospheric water harvesting does not appear to be feasible to serve as the primary water source, it might have potential to become a supplementary, decentralized clean water supply. Atmospheric water harvesting systems on Mars require more power and energy, but they offer greater simplicity and flexibility compared to water extraction from the regolith. This approach could prove valuable in regions where water extraction from the regolith is infeasible or as a temporary backup in the event of a primary water system failure. Such a distributed water harvesting method might enhance the resilience and flexibility of water supply systems for future human Mars missions and settlements. Ultimately, any technology developed for extraterrestrial environments can have important applications on Earth.

KW - ISRU

KW - Mars

KW - water

KW - atmosphere

KW - regolith

U2 - 10.1016/j.asr.2025.11.002

DO - 10.1016/j.asr.2025.11.002

M3 - Article

SN - 0273-1177

VL - 77

SP - 635

EP - 670

JO - Advances in Space Research

JF - Advances in Space Research

IS - 1

ER -

Martian aqua: occurrence of water and appraisal of acquisition technologies

Abstract

Funding

Keywords

UN SDGs

Access to Document

Fingerprint

Cite this