Detecting water has technologically advanced a long way from using “magic” sticks. Modern science allows using bouncing neutrons in order to detect underground crystal structures, mineral and oil reserves, as well as water presence, in any of its forms. A device capable of doing just that has been developed by the Federal Space Agency of Russia, as a tool that will be attached to the next Martian exploring rover, the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL).

 

The device is called Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN), and William Boynton from the University of Arizona has tried to explain for Space how it works. Basically, it sends neutron beams in the ground and, if the neutrons meet hydrogen atoms contained in water molecules (or otherwise), they pass on some of their energy to those. "It is like striking a billiard ball with the cue ball," he said. "If you hit it directly on center, all of the energy of the cue ball (the neutron in this case) will be transferred to the billiard ball (the hydrogen atom)."

 

"It is important because it will be looking for water – not in the sense of liquid, but in the sense of H2O in any of its forms," added Boynton. Water was found before on Mars, by the recently “deceased” Phoenix Mars Lander mission, as well as by the two rovers, Opportunity and Spirit. NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft also includes two resembling neutron detectors, and uses them from the height of its orbit around Mars, but they can only locate water sources wider than 600 km from that distance.

 

So, basically, the DAN instrument will help better chart the water regions of Mars, providing a map, if you will, of their precise location, span and depth, with the aid of its two neutron detectors that provide about a million times higher resolution than the Odyssey's tools. Based on the success of its mission, which is slated to be launched next year as a part of the MSL, future plans involving the red planet could be devised.