MARSES Project Information . MARSES is an integrated research experiment devoted to searching for water, water-ice or permafrost layers believed to exist at some depth under the visible surface of Mars. ... Secondary tasks are the measurement of the soil properties of the subsurface of Mars which include porosity, electrical resistance of the liquid phase, thermal conductivity, temperature dependence. ... Jean?s escape of water via the atmosphere is very slow (of the order of 3 m over 5 Gy). ...