Re: Water on Mars?
Of course there is some frozen water at the poles but the poles are not a prime place for Mars bases (except for climatological research, reading the layers). If there is substantive water within 10s of meters of the surface at significant # of places at moderate latitudes, sustaining a base and fueling rockets and rovers is greatly simplified vs a dry subsurface Mars.
-philw (not proven, but the leading indicators are positive)