Martian surface water: none to be found

Finding liquid water on Mars has been a frustrating endeavor. We know that the poles are covered with ice, but several satellite missions have failed to find water flowing on the surface of the red planet. This month's journal Science describes the latest information from the first 100 days of the mission of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). Hoping that the orbiter would identify waterfront landing sites for future rovers, scientists were disappointed to find that the virtually all of the Mars surface is dry. The formations once thought to be carved out by flowing water have been formed by lava flows. Dry areas thought to be riverbeds and former ocean floors are covered with volcanic rock. link