VAST reserves of water ice really do lurk under the Martian surface, scientists confirm this week. The observations, by the Mars Odyssey spacecraft, should help resolve the long-standing mystery of what happened to the water that once flowed on the Red Planet.
In March, scientists announced preliminary evidence of water ice just beneath the Martian surface between 60 degrees south and the south pole (Â鶹´«Ã½, 9 March, p 9). Instruments on the Mars Odyssey orbiter had seen signs of hydrogen down to a depth of about a metre. That hydrogen would almost certainly be locked into crystals of…
