The influence of higher atmospheric pressure on the Martian surface and sub-surface radiation environment - implications for Martian habitability in the Noachian era

Details The influence of higher atmospheric pressure on the Martian surface and sub-surface radiation environment - implications for Martian habitability in the Noachian era The influence of higher atmospheric pressure on the Martian surface and sub-surface radiation environment - implications for Martian habitability in the Noachian era

Dec 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010agufm.p53e1556e&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2010, abstract #P53E-1556

Physics

[6225] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Mars

Scientific paper

Due to the fact that present-day Mars lacks a global magnetic field and has a comparably low atmospheric pressure, high-energetic galactic cosmic rays can propagate all the way through the Martian atmosphere to the ground and interact with the soil. The resulting radiation environment on the Martian surface is much more hazardous for life than the one on Earth. Looking at the possibility of an emergence of life on Mars, the Noachian epoch (4.6 - 3.5 Ga BP) proves to be a most interesting time span. It is assumed that Mars possessed a significantly higher atmospheric pressure level and possibly still had a global magnetic field, both serving as a shield against cosmic radiation. These conditions would in all likelihood have yielded a less hostile radiation environment for a possible emergence and evolution of life. Furthermore, it is widely agreed upon that liquid water existed at least sporadically on the surface during this time, which serves as a further prerequisite for an emergence of life as we know it. Using the Planetocosmics- and GEANT4-simulation codes, we calculate the particle radiation for different atmospheric conditions, as well as the resulting radiation exposure. Here, we present galactic cosmic proton- and alpha-particle-induced surface and sub-surface radiation environments for different atmospheric pressure levels and resulting dose equivalent and absorbed dose rates. These results yield a first estimate of the influence that Noachian pressure conditions would have had on the possibility of life on early Mars. Furthermore, analyzing present-day Martian conditions can give implications for expected measurements by the Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) on-board the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover which is scheduled to be launched in November 2011.

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