Learning more about where the water is today and where it was in the past will also guide future studies about whether Mars ever supported life.
Mars is the most habitable planet accessible to us. It's not extremely cold or hot. It's possible to imagine human colonies on Mars.
We know that rocks have been transported from Mars to Earth. It's possible that life existed only on Mars at one point. It's possible that rocks could have carried spores and life to Earth and that we're Martians.
At this point we have an idea that water is probably abundant on Mars in the form of ice. It's not a matter of finding water on Mars but learning its importance in climate change ... and clearly it has been important to shaping the landscape.
These high-resolution images of Mars are thrilling, and unique given the early morning time-of-day.