Water history isn't the big contentious issue, though - I argued elsewhere that most of the "discovered" water would be nothing more than ferrous sulphates:
http://www.chronicles-network.net/forum/showthread.php?t=68&highlight=water+mars
The big questions is how much of the water on Mars can
currently exist as a liquid state. NASA last year would have had us believe that you could literally scoop it up and drink it - I say the whole "water on Mars" issue is being heavily hyped up.
No one really questions the probability of some degree of history of water on Mars - the key question is how this keys in with the issue of the potential for the development of life on the planet.
Having geological proofs of water on MArs is great stuff - just let's not allow NASA to hype this up into something more than it is. After all, there's plenty of water distributed across many other bodies in the Solar System.
I am glad they proved me right on the issue of sulphates, though.
*dances a little dance*
That would mean my own theories on the development of Mars are still ontrack - but, boy, do they differ from anything you can imagine! Soon, not yet.
Anyway, here's the New Scientist report about the robot study:
Mars was once 'soaked' with water
Liquid water once drenched the surface of Mars - offering conditions which may have supported life, NASA scientists announced on Tuesday.
Accumulated evidence from NASA's Mars rover Opportunity which landed on the Martian plateau, Meridiani Planum, on 25 January strongly suggests the site was once "soaked," said Steve Squyres, the mission's chief scientist, at NASA headquarters in Washington DC.
"Liquid water once drenched the surface. It would have been a good habitable environment for a good long time, " Ed Weiler, NASA's chief scientist, said of Opportunity's exploration site.
But the evidence does not allow any determination of how long, or how long ago this extensive presence of water may have been there, cautions Squyres.
The case for substantial amounts of liquid water at this site is now very strong, he says - fulfilling a major objective of the twin rover mission, which was to search for evidence of past water on Mars.
More:
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994732
