1,000 Tiny Satellites Just Revealed Mars' Hidden Water

Added: 2026-05-26

[00:00:00]NASA wants to send 1,000 credit card size satellites to Mars that will work together like a single machine 10 km wide. This swarm could find every underground water lake on the entire planet in just 90 days. The mission is called Pelican [music] and it's basically a game-changer for Mars exploration. Here's how it works. All 1,000 identical femtosatellites [music] get released into Mars orbit at the same time. Then they form what's called a synthetic aperture radar dish.

[00:00:27]Think of it like a massive antenna made of tiny pieces [music] working in perfect coordination. This virtual dish is so enormous, 10 km across, that it's actually bigger than any physical structure humans have ever built in [music] space. And that size matters because it lets them see incredibly deep. The radar can detect [music] liquid water buried up to 3 km beneath the Martian surface at meter scale resolution, meaning they can spot details smaller than a house.

[00:00:53]Every hidden underground lake, every [music] potential water source, all mapped in a single 90-day campaign.

[00:01:00]These satellites are so small that you could literally hold them in your hand.

[00:01:04]Yet together, they'd solve one [music] of Mars' biggest mysteries.