Water found on Mars!

[Anton P. Nym]

True, but the bonded water is probably released at several hundred degrees Celsius. Some of the water is just held by hydrogen bonds and will quickly evaporate at ~100°C, but the rest needs to be pushed out by calcination/pyrolysis.

For once Twitter becomes actually useful:

Waters of Mars: I found H2O molecules bound in rocks/dust, not liquid water. When heated to 150-300 C, the minerals release water vapor.

Curiosity Rover (@MarsCuriosity) September 26, 2013

So the water's reachable at much lower temperatures than Curiosity's "broil" setting.

-- Steve

Edited September 28, 2013 by Anton P. Nym
Because BBS script sucks?

[lajoswinkler]

That's more promising, although still doesn't present an "easibly accessible" source of water for the astronauts.

I have hope and believe there is lots of water ice deeper in the ground. It would take some shovelling, but there should be a permafrost of CO2 and water down there. The further you go from the poles, the deeper the layer should be.

[magnemoe]

So the water's reachable at much lower temperatures than Curiosity's "broil" setting.

-- Steve

Yes, important as 200 C is an pretty easy temperature to reach with an reactor. Still it would be smart to search for better deposits if you wanted to refuel.