The Day of the Triffgeeks

Updated This is really cool. No pun intended. It's from the BBC for last Friday.

A giant patch of frozen water has been pictured nestled within an unnamed impact crater on Mars. ...

The ice disc is located on Vastitas Borealis, a broad plain that covers much of Mars' far northern latitudes.

Just to make sure we're clear her, this is ice. Regular water ice. Not frozen CO₂, not anything else. Frozen water. On the surface of Mars. Not even underground, on the surface. Damn.

The highly visible ice lake is sitting in a crater which is 35 km (23 miles) wide, with a maximum depth of about two km (1.2 miles).

Scientists believe the water-ice is present all year round because the temperature and pressure are not sufficient to allow it to change states.

It was found by the High Resolution Stereo Camera on board Mars Express, the probe launched by the European Space Agency which is now orbiting the planet.

The more we know, the better it gets. People are again raising the possibility of a human mission to Mars sometime in the future now that it's known the astronauts can find water there.

But of course, first we have to get the space shuttle back safely, something which at the moment is not altogether certain. The news (via PastPeak) that NASA had not been required to actually fix the problem of insulating foam coming off, the problem that lead to the previous disaster, because it cost too much, is not particularly comforting, either.

But this is what happens when you have an agency that's basically told "you don't get a budget to do it right, that costs too much - do it cheaper" and "you'd better get a media-friendly mission up there or your budget is in trouble" at the same time.

Updated to include the links to the Mars Express site and the ESA.