Sure, it was like ages ago. It’s not like we’re going to be able to go there and tap into some underground lake and suddenly make the planet green. Still, it’s pretty cool to know that Mars used to have water.
Europa, one of Jupiter's icy moons which I'm sure it could spare
I don’t completely understand the science. They found gypsum. I guess, if you are the type of person who knows chemistry, that means there used to be water there. Sort of like if you find fingerprints, you know that somebody’s greedy little fingers were on the object in question.
The philosophical implication is that if Mars, the 4th rock from the sun, once had water and we, on the 3rd rock from the sun, have oceansful of it, then water must be pretty darned common stuff throughout the universe and, since we know that life can grow in H2O if it’s at the right temperature, then it’s probable that life is just about as ubiquitous throughout the universe as Starbucks is on earth. And, since life is so ubiquitous, and higher forms of life tend to evolve from lower forms of life, which they do because lower forms of life really don’t have anything better to do and they get bored after a few million years, then even intelligent life is bound to be pretty common.
I watched a pretty cool documentary a couple of days ago about terraforming Mars and, of course, the big problem is introducing water there.
Here’s my idea (bear in mind that I’m not a scientist, I’m just an old stoner who watches way too much science fiction): How about taking one of those moons of Jupiter or Saturn which are mostly ice, somehow getting some rockets attached to them, enough to give them a nudge out of orbit and headed inwards, on a collision course with Mars and, BLAMMO, a new planet is born, about half again the size Mars is now, with plenty of surface water and an atmosphere.
I think it would work.
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