Mars' polar ice

A joint NASA-Italian Space Agency orbiter has recently made radar measurements of the thickness of the ice at the south pole of Mars and discovered that there is enough frozen water to cover the planet in about 36 feet of water. The icecap covers an area larger than Texas, and it also goes to depths up to 2.3 miles below the surface. The orbiter also provides useful information on the deeper structures of Mars and how they compare to the Earth.