MARS has finally shaken off its dry, barren image. Vast reservoirs of water ice almost certainly lie just a few centimetres below its dusty red surface, according to data released by researchers working with NASA’s Mars Odyssey, the probe now orbiting the planet.
It’s hard not to find the new data ironic. NASA has effectively admitted that if only Viking 2 had been equipped with a small gardening trowel when it landed on Mars in 1976, it would almost certainly have hit the jackpot then. But this week researchers are rushing to draw up design proposals for landers that can dig and drill, vying to be…
