Back when Landis made his proposal, he proposed the poles because that was the only place we knew to contain water. Since then, we've found a lot more. For exa

Back when Landis made his proposal, he proposed the poles because that was the only place we knew to contain water. Since then, we've found a lot more. For example, this recent paper about the million cubic km of ice in Valles Marineris[1] (which are near the equator), or this presentation about kilometer-thick glaciers on Mars at mid-latitudes[2] from the recent Mars society convention. We don't have to go to really cold and annoying for return flights locations near the poles to find water -- there's plenty of it on Mars in better places. [1] http://www.dmzone.org/papers/Gourroncetal2014_VM.pdf http://www.dmzone.org/papers/Gourroncetal2014_VM.pdf [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2ERsEXAq_s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2ERsEXAq_s