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Ice Cliffs Spotted On Mars (sciencemag.org)
sciencehabit writes from a report via Science Magazine: Scientists have discovered eight cliffs of nearly pure water ice on Mars, some of which stand nearly 100 meters tall. The discovery points to large stores of underground ice buried only a meter or two below the surface at surprisingly low martian latitudes, in regions where ice had not yet been detected. Each cliff seems to be the naked face of a glacier, tantalizing scientists with the promise of a layer-cake record of past martian climates and space enthusiasts with a potential resource for future human bases. Scientists discovered the cliffs with a high-resolution camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, revisiting the sites to show their subsequent retreat as a result of vaporization, and their persistence in the martian summer. The hunt should now be on, scientists say, for similar sites closer to the equator. The findings have been reported in this week's issue of Science.
Because on the Moon the ice is at best in eternally shaded craters, buried as small crystal in the dust. Evidence even for this is inconclusive (there's hydrogen there, but it doesn't have to be water). Then the Moon has an unforgiving thermal environment with lots of sun and long dark nights. And then the Moon has no atmosphere, which means no protection against micrometeorites. And then Mars has an atmosphere of CO2 which gives you a source of easy accessible carbon. Also to land on the Moon you have to brake with engines and propellants all the way down while on Mars you have the atmosphere to do most of that for you. Also Mars is much more interesting to explore, since it had a wet and warmer past, so you can go and look for signs of past life instead of digging through dead dust on the Moon.
And nothing of this is in any way new.