Drone Radar Over Alaska and Wyoming Points Way to Buried Ice on Mars

by Clarence Oxford
Los Angeles, CA (SPX) Apr 29, 2026
University of Arizona researchers have demonstrated that drones equipped with ground-penetrating radar can map the depth of rocky debris blanketing glaciers on Earth, a technique they say could guide future missions to locate accessible buried ice on Mars.

The work, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, draws on field campaigns at debris-covered glaciers in Alaska and Wyoming. The sites were chosen because they closely resemble mid-latitude ice deposits that orbiting spacecraft have photographed on Mars.

Roberto Aguilar, a doctoral researcher at the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory and the paper's first author, said the core operational question for any future Mars drilling mission is stratigraphic. "If you want to make decisions about where to drill on Mars, you need to know if the ice you're trying to find is under one meter of debris or 10," Aguilar said. "That's the kind of information a drone-based system could provide."

Debris-covered glaciers differ sharply from the bare, snow-dusted ice most people picture. Their icy cores are concealed beneath thick accumulations of rock and sediment. On Earth these formations appear in mountainous regions from Colorado to California, where the debris layer acts as insulation against melting. On Mars, analogous deposits occur in craters filled with ice and later blanketed by dust, in large valleys where accumulated ice was subsequently buried, and in mountainous terrain where rockfall shields underlying ice from sublimation into the thin atmosphere.

Orbital radar can detect and broadly quantify large Martian ice deposits, but its resolution is too coarse to determine debris thickness or identify internal rocky layering. Aguilar noted that drone radar addresses precisely that gap: because drones fly far closer to the surface than spacecraft, they can image the ground at substantially higher resolution.

The team validated the method by comparing radar-derived debris-thickness measurements against direct excavation and drilling at the same glacier sites. The measurements agreed, confirming the approach is reliable. Beyond debris depth, the higher-resolution drone data also allowed the researchers to assess ice purity and detect internal rocky layers - features that orbital instruments cannot resolve.

Those internal layers carry scientific weight beyond engineering planning. "The internal layers we're seeing are important because they're a record of past climate cycles," Aguilar said. "Each layer represents a different period of ice accumulation and environmental conditions over centuries or millennia, and it is likely we would see similar layers on Mars."

The team also ran simulations to rule out signal contamination from surface objects such as boulders and trees, confirming that radar returns were originating from beneath the rubble rather than from surrounding terrain features.

Identifying where ice lies shallowest would allow mission planners to target drill sites more precisely rather than committing resources to locations where the overlying debris layer may be prohibitively thick. The researchers frame buried Martian ice as a multi-purpose resource: a potential archive of past environmental conditions, a source of water, oxygen, and agricultural support for future crews, and a target for astrobiology drilling.

Field work underpinning the study was demanding. In Alaska the team moved through mosquito swarms and rough off-road terrain. In Wyoming, equipment had to be hauled across boulder fields to reach glacier targets at higher elevations. Drone batteries were charged by generator the night before each flight day.

The project also established practical operating parameters for drone-based radar sounding, including optimal flight altitude and speed, the importance of flying in the direction of glacier flow, and procedures for ensuring correct radar alignment to detect ice.

"We are filling the gap between today's orbital observations and a more distant future, where astronauts land on Mars and make observations on the ground," Aguilar said. "This gives us a way to investigate the glaciers now, from the air."

Research Report: Revealing the Internal Structure of Mars-Analog Glaciers From Drone-Based Radar Sounding