[S0122017]

This image of Mars's south polar region and it's ice was snapped by the Viking Orbiter (Image: NASA)

[S0122017]

My favourite excerpt:

Water ice was expected in the polar caps, since they represent the largest known reservoirs of water on Mars. Estimates suggest that if they melted, they would cover the planet in a layer of water up to 33 metres deep.

Terraforming can start right away! It gives you an idea of what the possibility of (former) life on mars are, if the average climate there used to be warmer.

[Thrusher]

Gaping canyons and river-like channels attest to the fact that large amounts of water once flowed on Mars. But today most of that water has disappeared, and finding out where it went is one of the main aims of research on the Red Planet.

In other news, Greenpeace scientists have also published an exhaustive research study about how the use of aersol spray cans on Earth has lead to global warming on Mars. The study is unique in that it was written entirely in crayon.

[Chuck54]

It once SNOWED on Mars......

Now really. I'm not planning a trip next week or next year for that matter. WRGARA.

:)

[builder]

Thank God for our "man made" global warming, or this would have been our fate.[sarc]

[himno hero]

okay


everyone here keep on clapping
keep your hands high, where I can see them


so who stole the water?

[inkling]

Ski Trip!

[mirkwood]

[RightWhale]

Until the ice is confirmed by a lander with a drill that can bring up a core sample, the evidence, in particular the exact location of accessible water, is not sufficient to send anything but a completely self-sufficient manned landing that will return after a short stay. This is highly inefficient, but is the status of the Mars landing mission now.

A better program for long-term manned exploration would create a permanent space station orbiting Mars that could send down any number of robot landers and eventually a manned lander, and after a while a permanent surface base.

[hosepipe]

Humans have always been suckers for a good story..
even for bad ones.. Not all humans have good taste in literature..

[SunkenCiv]

Sprinkle of white on the red planet
arizonarepublic | February, 23 2003
Posted on 02/23/2003 6:56:45 PM EST by Indy Pendance
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/850178/posts