[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.

[S0122017]

Mars Ping

[cripplecreek]

I think the biggest obstacle on Mars will be the radiation from space. That would force us underground but that may not be a bad thing.

[Magnum44]

Terraforming can start right away!

Well, not so sure. The suspected reason Mars has little atmosphere or water vapor is that with no magnetic field, it all sublimated off into space eons ago. Whats left is in frozen state in the ground where it is somewhat shielded from the same fate. If you start trying to create an atmosphere with water vapor from the ground source, the same thing will probably occur. We really cant do much about the lack of a Mag field on Mars.

The article states:

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.

The writer is not well informed. The large canyons visible from Earth are not from water flow. They are there because the crust 'crumbled' as the planet cooled. Mars has no mag field because its once molten core is now cold and solid. No moving magma, no resulting currents and mag field.

So terraforming may be much more difficult that supposed. Thats my understanding of the current theories anyway. I am not an expert on this, but its related to my area.

[ppptop]

So are they saying this ice-water is actually a giant cherry slurppy

[SunkenCiv]

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.

The climate didn't used to be warmer, there's just some water there. :')

Due to the wisp of an atmosphere (it's about the same atmospheric pressure as at 40 miles altitude on Earth) the only way to have flowing water is for some heat source (such as the energy from an impact from space) to sublime the ice directly into vapor, which would provide a temporary atmosphere and microclimate, permitting liquid water to flow. That's consistent with what is seen on the surface -- erosion from streams that appeared from nowhere, flowed to nowhere, and went away to nowhere.