[lutusp]

> It's amazing to me that it has taken us so long to arrive at such a tentative result on the existence of water on Mars.

The article is completely misleading. The presence of water on Mars is not remotely controversial -- it has been detected in a dozen different ways.

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_on_Mars

Quote: "Water on Mars exists today almost exclusively as ice, with a small amount present in the atmosphere as vapour.[1] The only place where water ice is visible at the surface is at the north polar ice cap.[2] However, abundant water ice is also present beneath the permanent carbon dioxide ice cap at the Martian south pole and in the shallow subsurface at more temperate latitudes.[3][4][5][6] More than five million cubic kilometers of ice have been identified at or near the surface of modern Mars, enough to cover the whole planet to a depth of 35 meters.[7] Even more ice is likely to be locked away in the deep subsurface.[8]"