Karl L. Mitchell

Evidence from the Mars Express High Resolution Stereo Camera for a frozen sea close to Mars' equator

It is thought that the Cerberus Fossae fissures on Mars were the source of both lava and water floods two to ten million years ago. Evidence for the resulting lava plains has been identified in eastern Elysium, but seas and lakes from these fissures and previous water flooding events were presumed to have evaporated and sublimed away. Here we present High Resolution Stereo Camera images from the European Space Agency Mars Express spacecraft that indicate that such lakes may still exist. We infer that the evidence is consistent with a frozen body of water, with surface pack-ice, around 5° north latitude and 150° east longitude in southern Elysium. The frozen lake measures about 800 × 900 km in lateral extent and may be up to 45 metres deep—similar in size and depth to the North Sea. From crater counts, we determined its age to be 5 ± 2 million years old. If our interpretation is confirmed, this is a place that might preserve evidence of primitive life, if it has ever developed on Mars.

Mars outflow channels: A reappraisal of the estimation of water flow velocities from water depths, regional slopes, and channel floor properties

Methods used so far to assess the flow velocities of the water commonly assumed to be responsible for forming the major outflow channel systems on Mars have relied widely on various versions of the Manning equation. This has led to problems in allowing for the difference between the accelerations due to gravity on Mars and Earth and for the differences of scale between Martian floods and most river systems on Earth. We reanalyze the problem of estimating water flow velocities in Martian outflow channels using equations based on the Darcy-Weisbach friction factor instead of the Manning n factor. We give simplified formulae appropriate to Mars for the Darcy-Weisbach friction coefficient as a function of bedrock size distribution. For a given channel floor slope and water flood depth, similar mean flow velocities are implied for a wide range of values of the ratio of bed roughness to water depth relevant to Martian outflow channels. Using a recent rederivation of Mannings equation based on turbulence theory, we obtain a new value of 0.0545 s m−1/3 for the Manning n coefficient appropriate to Martian channels and show that previous analyses have generally overestimated (though in some cases underestimated) water flow velocities on Mars by a factor of order two. Combining the consequences of this flow velocity overestimate with likely overestimates of flow depth from assuming bank-full flow, we show that discharges may have been overestimated by a factor of up to 25, leading to corresponding overestimates of subsurface aquifer permeabilities, rates of filling of depressions with water, and grain sizes of sediments on channel floors. Despite the availability of an improved value for the Manning n coefficient for Mars, we strongly recommend that modified forms of the original version of the Manning equation should be replaced by the modern form or, preferably, by the Darcy-Weisbach equation in future work.

Fluvial network analysis on Titan: Evidence for subsurface structures and west‐to‐east wind flow, southwestern Xanadu

[1] Data of Titan’s surface from the Cassini-Huygens mission show inferred fluvial networks interpreted as products of liquid alkane flow. Using synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data, we delineated drainage networks, measured network parameters, and used these measurements in a simplified algorithm for classifying terrestrial drainage patterns. The results show a variety of patterns, indicating that a variety of factors control fluvial drainage on Titan. Drainage network patterns in southwestern Xanadu are classified as rectangular, suggesting control by a subsurface tectonic structural fabric. Link orientations also suggest that thissubsurfacetectonicfabricisorientedpredominantlyeastwest. Spatial variations in drainage networks are consistent with a west-to-east precipitation pattern, supporting inferences from aeolian dune morphology. These results illustrate how fluvial landform analysis can yield new information on both atmospheric and subsurface processes. Citation: Burr, D. M., R. E. Jacobsen, D. L. Roth, C. B. Phillips, K. L. Mitchell, and D. Viola (2009), Fluvial network analysis on Titan: Evidence for subsurface structures and west-to-east wind flow, southwestern Xanadu, Geophys. Res. Lett., 36, L22203,

Laboratory measurements of cryogenic liquid alkane microwave absorptivity and implications for the composition of Ligeia Mare, Titan

The complex dielectric constants of liquids methane and ethane were measured at 90 K and 14.1 GHz, close to the frequency of the Cassini RADAR. The liquid ethane loss tangent is far greater than that of liquid methane, facilitating discrimination by remote sensing. The results suggest a methane-dominated composition for the northern sea, Ligeia Mare, on the basis of a recent loss tangent determination using Cassini RADAR altimetry. This contrasts a previous far higher loss tangent for the southern lake, Ontario Lacus, which is inconsistent with simple mixtures of methane and ethane. The apparent nonequilibrium methane-to-ethane ratio of Ligeia Mare can be explained by poor admixture of periodically cycled methane with a deeper ethane-rich alkanofer system, consistent with obliquity-driven volatile cycling, sequestration of ethane from the hydrocarbon cycle by incorporation into crustal clathrate hydrates, or periodic flushing of Ligeia Mare into adjacent Kraken Mare by fresh rainfall.

Formation of Aromatum Chaos, Mars: Morphological development as a result of volcano‐ice interactions

Morphological examination of the Aromatum Chaos depression on Mars supports earlier suggestions that it is a site of cryosphere disruption and release of pressurized water trapped in an underlying aquifer. We infer that the cause of cryosphere disruption was intrusion of a volcanic sill, confined laterally by earlier intruded dikes, and consequent melting of ice by heat from the sill. The vertical extents and displacements of blocks of terrain on the floor of the depression, together with an estimate of the cryosphere thickness, constrain the vertical extent of ice melting and hence the thickness of the sill (∼100 m) and the depth at which it was intruded (∼2–5 km). At least ∼75% of the volume of material removed from Aromatum Chaos must have been crustal rock rather than melted ice. Water from melted cryosphere ice played a negligible role in creating the depression, the process being dominated by released aquifer water. For sediment loads of 30–40% by volume, 10,500–16,500 km3 of aquifer water must have passed through the depression to carry away rock as entrained sediment and erode the associated Ravi Vallis channel. These required water volumes are 2–3 times larger than the amount of water that could reasonably be contained in aquifers located beneath the area of incipiently collapsed ground to the west of Aromatum Chaos and suggest a much larger water source. Given that this source probably also fed the nearby Shalbatana Vallis outflow channel, Gangis Chasma is the most likely candidate.

The Lakes and Seas of Titan

Analogous to Earths water cycle, Titans methane-based hydrologic cycle supports standing bodies of liquid and drives processes that result in common morphologic features including dunes, channels, lakes, and seas. Like lakes on Earth and early Mars, Titans lakes and seas preserve a record of its climate and surface evolution. Unlike on Earth, the volume of liquid exposed on Titans surface is only a small fraction of the atmospheric reservoir. The volume and bulk composition of the seas can constrain the age and nature of atmospheric methane, as well as its interaction with surface reservoirs. Similarly, the morphology of lacustrine basins chronicles the history of the polar landscape over multiple temporal and spatial scales. The distribution of trace species, such as noble gases and higher-order hydrocarbons and nitriles, can address Titans origin and the potential for both prebiotic and biotic processes. Accordingly, Titans lakes and seas represent a compelling target for exploration.

THEO Concept Mission: Testing the Habitability of Enceladus's Ocean

Abstract Saturn’s moon Enceladus offers a unique opportunity in the search for life and habitable environments beyond Earth, a key theme of the National Research Council’s 2013–2022 Decadal Survey. A plume of water vapor and ice spews from Enceladus’s south polar region. Cassini data suggest that this plume, sourced by a liquid reservoir beneath the moon’s icy crust, contain organics, salts, and water–rock interaction derivatives. Thus, the ingredients for life as we know it – liquid water, chemistry, and energy sources – are available in Enceladus’s subsurface ocean. We have only to sample the plumes to investigate this hidden ocean environment. We present a New Frontiers class, solar-powered Enceladus orbiter that would take advantage of this opportunity, Testing the Habitability of Enceladus’s Ocean (THEO). Developed by the 2015 Jet Propulsion Laboratory Planetary Science Summer School student participants under the guidance of TeamX, this mission concept includes remote sensing and in situ analyses with a mass spectrometer, a sub-mm radiometer–spectrometer, a camera, and two magnetometers. These instruments were selected to address four key questions for ascertaining the habitability of Enceladus’s ocean within the context of the moon’s geological activity: (1) how are the plumes and ocean connected? (2) are the abiotic conditions of the ocean suitable for habitability? (3) how stable is the ocean environment? (4) is there evidence of biological processes? By taking advantage of the opportunity Enceladus’s plumes offer, THEO represents a viable, solar-powered option for exploring a potentially habitable ocean world of the outer solar system.

Design of a low cost mission to the Neptunian system

Visited only by Voyager 2 in 1989, Neptune and its moon Triton hold important clues to the formation and evolution of the solar system and exoplanetary systems. Neptune-sized planets are the most commonly discovered exoplanets to date. Neptune, an ice giant, is theorized to have migrated from its formation location in the early solar system. This migration affects the expected interior structure, composition, and dynamical evolution of the planet. Triton is conjectured to be a heavily-processed, captured Kuiper Belt Object (KBO), a remnant from the early solar nebula and unique in our solar system. Triton may possess a subsurface aqueous ocean, making it an important astrobiological target. The 2013-2022 Planetary Science Decadal Survey [1] identified a number of high priority science goals for the Neptunian system, including understanding the structure, composition, and dynamics of Neptunes atmosphere and magnetosphere, as well as surveying the surface of Triton. Following these guidelines, we present a low cost flyby mission concept to Neptune and Triton: TRIDENT (Taking Remote and In-situ Data to Explore Neptune and Triton). TRIDENT would carry six instruments and a government furnished atmospheric probe and would provide significant improvements over the scientific measurements undertaken by Voyager 2. In this paper, we first provide a detailed overview of the science questions pertaining to Neptune and Triton and of the science investigations necessary to elucidate them. We then present the design of TRIDENTs instrument suite, the trajectory and the spacecraft, as well as the motivation behind each of our choices. In particular, we demonstrate that, for a mission launched on an Atlas V 551, a Neptune orbiter mission would be infeasible with current technology levels without the use of aerocapture. We therefore present a flyby mission concept with a cost lower than FY2015

Exotic Seas: Liquid Alkanes on Titan’s Surface

1.5B. We also show that the proposed mission has low risk and significant margin and that several de-scope options are available in the event of cost overruns. This study was prepared in conjunction with the NASA 2013 Planetary Science Summer School. The work presented is a hypothetical mission proposal, for planning and discussion purposes only. It does not represent NASAs interests in any way.

Titan's inventory of organic surface materials

Saturn’s giant moon Titan is unique among moons in our Solar System. As JPL’s Karl Mitchell shows us, it is the only one to have a dense atmosphere, the second thickest among the solid bodies in the Solar System. Its opaque Nitrogen-Methane blanket, although much colder than those of the atmosphere-laden rocky planets of Earth, Venus and Mars, is nonetheless imbued with clouds of liquid ethane whose rains fill rivers and seas of methane/ethane brews.