Nasa technology used on Mars 'could prevent water wars on Earth'

Nasa technology used on Mars to find underground ice could be used to search for water hidden throughout the world’s deserts, a UN conference has heard.

Equipment used by the space agency’s probes could eventually be used to stop the world plunging into conflict and war, Nasa scientists claimed.

The probe, launched in 2007, discovered that desert which covers Mars sat on enough frozen water to submerge the Red Planet.

It used equipment, dubbed Marsis, that consisted of a radar sounder with a 131 ft (40 m) antenna fitted to an orbiter that was then able to bounce radio waves 2.3 miles (3.7km) beath the surface of Mars.

As a result that same radar technology should be used in the vast deserts of the Middle East and North Africa, said Essam Heggy, a planetary scientist.

Dr Heggy, a member of Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told the UN water conference in Alexandria, the Egyptian coastal city, that the scarcity of water could trigger potential water-related conflicts throughout the region.

He said that the technology could detect water up more than half a mile beneath the dense deserts that cover much of the Middle East and North Africa.

As global warming continues to wreck havoc on earth over the next century, experts say arid land will threaten to consume more land.

The technology, he added, could eventually help ward off conflict.

via Nasa technology used on Mars 'could prevent water wars on Earth' - Telegraph.