Geoffrey Landis made a proposal for a polar landing site for the first manned mission to Mars back in the 90s. One of the clear advantages is that you don't need to bring hydrogen with you for the return trip, but instead you can just make it from the ice. Landis proposed the mission for northern hemisphere summer so that solar power would be constantly (or nearly constantly) available. One thing Landis didn't mention but is worth considering is that ice could be used for radiation shielding, either by tunneling into it or by melting it and reforming it into a surface structure.<p>However, landing on the polar ice cap has some downsides, not least of which is it would be the most boring place on the whole planet to land.<p>Korolev crater might make a good alternative site since you could conceivably land near a substantial amount of easily accessible water ice while still retaining easy access to terrain that is not ice-covered.<p>[1] <a href="http://www.geoffreylandis.com/pole.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.geoffreylandis.com/pole.html</a>
That's quite probably the most impressive picture of 2018. For a long time there was a belief that earth was singular in possessing an abundance of water and now spectroscopy has revealed the presence of water on other planets and fly-bys by probes show geysers erupting from the surfaces of moons. Science advances even if it's not always at the pace we would like.
I'm a bit confused - werent the NASA landers looking at the Martian dirt for microscopic traces of evidence of water in the past? or perhaps digging for some sign of water? and the NSA probe just flys by and says hey look out the window, there's a entire lake of frozen water, sitting on the surface, that noone has ever observed before.
This is simple, but how many of you want to go there?<p>Pictures like this make me want it. To stand somewhere on the ice, maybe brush a little snow around and see the rim all around... it's like a little island, delicate.<p>We are living in fantastic times!