The North Star, also known as Polaris, is famous for holding nearly still in our sky while the entire northern sky revolves around it. Because it is located nearly at the north celestial pole, it has been an invaluable tool for navigation in the Northern Hemisphere for centuries.
Mars has lots of glaciers located along its mid-latitudes. We’ve known this for years thanks to the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s (MRO’s) SHARAD sounder. But, despite all of the excellent data it’s managed to gather, SHARAD doesn’t have high enough resolution to accurately measure the boundary between the glacier itself and the rocky material that has been deposited on top of it over the course of billions of years. A new study, published in the journal JGR Planets, details a potential method of finding that boundary—by using a drone.
