Water (ice) Found on Mars?

jeffthompson writes "Images from the Mars Global Surveyor show formations near the equator that were possibly made by ice inder the surface. And there's a chance the ice is still there which would be a prime place to look for microbes."

White Mars

[Bob Kopp]

Well... CO2(liquid) is not stable on the Martian surface, but it should be stable in the Martian subsurface; "cryoclastic" flows might therefore explain some of the flood structures. (See Hoffman, 2000 [idealibrary.com]). I don't buy it as an explanation for all the features (e.g. the apparent rivers and sedimentary basins), but it's an interesting theory.

Bob

Follow Up

[vbrtrmn]

Scientists recently found that this water is actually an intergalactic piss-hole.

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microsoft, it's what's for dinner

bq--3b7y4vyll6xi5x2rnrj7q.com

Well I'm thankful NASA wasn't looking for Milk

[BrentRJones]

or Lemonaid or Quick or ....

It makes me feel small yet great

[ishrat]

Invariably whenever I read of something of this kind, i.e new explorations into other planets and of hope of life, I feel just like or even smaller than those ants who live in a piece of land and think that's the world. Remember that last shot in 'A Bugs Life' or was it 'Antz'( I think it's the former), where succesive long shots are taken of the world of those ants and you realize all th e action took place in a miniscule spot in a park.

At the same time however I feel great pride in the fact that inspite of this smallness we are scaling newer hieghts of knowledge and our quest for the whole picture is on.

Let us congratulate ourselves for what we have achieved and for what we shall henceforth.

Ski Olympus Mons

[Kibo]

I think the CO2 flows were proposed not as liqued flows of CO2, but more an an agent that could cause mass wasting event such as a pyroclastic flow of a volcano. Not by being a river of CO2 liquid. Another analogous event might be the continental shelf slides that may or may not be caused by methelhydrates escaping.

CLATHRATES AND CARBON DIOXIDE ON A DRY COLD MARS [confex.com]

I can't believe it's not water (spaceviews.com) [spaceviews.com]

1. rocket 2. camel 3. bring water [spacedaily.com]

Water on Mars

[Yazeran]

The experts have claimed that water has been responsible for a number of landforms on Mars (starting of course with the "rivers"). Oftentimes a new theory will present itself, landforms resembling those on Earth, etc. and a plausible theory based on (say) CO2 flows could account for it. So we shouldn't get all excited over this.

Except that in order for CO2 to become a liquid at all, you need an atmospheric pressure ABOVE that found here on earth (CO2 is 'dry ice' as it cannot exist in the liqid state unelss under pressure). If the beforementioned structures were to be verified as created by CO2-liquid, this would be a verry important and optimistic result, as the pressure on Mars vould have th have been much higher than today.
The structures found by the sattelites the past few years suggests that flowing water have existed on the surface of Mars in the past.

I hope it is still there (as some of the images returned have suggested, at least it was there some 10000 years ago), as this would make manned trips to Mars possible and practical.

Many landforms found on Mars have been made by flowing liquid (as they are so like those found on earth), and water is just the only plausible liquid avaliable on Mars.

Yours Yazeran

Plan: To go to Mars one day with a hammer.

More water on Mars?

[Control-Z]

It seems like every 6 months or so scientists find more evidence of water on Mars.

Why don't we go there and see for ourselves? Pick some up and taste it? It's the year 2001, we're supposed to have hover-cars and space colonies for cryin' out loud!

If the Pentagon can "lose" a BILLION dollars why can't we afford to send men to Mars?

There is cause to suspect water in this case

[Spamalamadingdong]

CO2 isn't a likely suspect. CO2 ice is not stable at the equator of Mars, but water ice would be at the average temperature.

Sure would make life easier for Martian explorers and colonists if they only had to drill down a few feet to find permafrost that they could tap for water. H2O + CO2 + yields rocket fuel, among other things. Zubrin's Mars Direct concept works even better if you don't have to ship any hydrogen along.
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Let's not get our hopes up too much

[ausduck]

The experts have claimed that water has been responsible for a number of landforms on Mars (starting of course with the "rivers"). Oftentimes a new theory will present itself, landforms resembling those on Earth, etc. and a plausible theory based on (say) CO2 flows could account for it. So we shouldn't get all excited over this.

eg, http://www.spacedaily.com/news/lunarplanet-2001-01 a4.html [spacedaily.com]

That's all well and good, but...

[NickFusion]

This will, one hopes, lead to a call for manned exploration and eventual colonization of Mars (which would be cool), but why don't we set up shop on the moon first, where we know there is some water. [sciam.com] Let's establish a secure (and less expensive) foothold, then turn our efforts toward Mars.

I wish.