[Rebel_Ace]

"...liquid water needs 32 degrees to thaw. when was the last time Mars saw 32 degrees?..."

Actually, in very low pressure environments, solid ice "evaporates" directly into the air without going through the "liquid" phase. When this is happening, the term (or verb) for it is "sublime", as in the ice sublimed into vapor. Since the air pressure on Mars is so very low, I would expect a chunk of ice anywhere away from the extremely cold poles to slowly disappear on it's own.

Once the water vapor was in the air, hard radiation could split the Hydrogen and Oxygen, where the lighter Hydrogen could "leak away" into space, and the heavier oxygen could bind with material on the surface to form a crusty-rust.

[Kirkwood]

"Once the water vapor was in the air, hard radiation could split the Hydrogen and Oxygen, where the lighter Hydrogen could "leak away" into space, and the heavier oxygen could bind with material on the surface to form a crusty-rust."

This is exactly what I was taught as an astronomy undergraduate 30 years ago. I don't think the theory has changed during that time.

[RightWhale]

Ice sublimes even on earth at below freezing. We can see this easily in Fairbanks where water vapor from snow redeposits inside of smowbanks to form ice crystals in non-snow shapes such as needles, plates, and cups, and the thickness of the old subsurface snow blanket decreases all winter while fresh snow deposits on top.

[epow]

Actually, in very low pressure environments, solid ice "evaporates" directly into the air without going through the "liquid" phase.

How low does the pressure have to be? Isn't that the way improperly wrapped meat gets "freezer burn" in the deep freezer? And I know from experience that clothes frozen on the clothesline will dry in sub-zero temperatures. I have seen this happen to clothes my wife would hang out to dry in winter many years ago before we had a dryer.

In seems to me the ice in the clothes must go directly from solid state water to vapor-state since it can't thaw into liquid water if the air temperature is way below freezing, or can it?