There is ice at the Martian Poles, one of the poles has water ice in abundance. Such an ice over region could easily be converted into a habitat for a Martian Colony of human explorers. Taking humans to Mars is not such an easy task, keeping them alive once there even harder, bringing them back not easy at all. The polar water ice cap may hold the key to building a successful colony on Mars.

Do you remember the James Bond Movie that took place as the ice hotel? There is actually a place where they build one every year for visitors. Sounds cool and indeed it is, but can we use this idea to build an ice colony on Mars tunneling under the ice, chipping away and building rooms. Using the ice to derive oxygen while using the hydrogen for power. The ice can be converted to water to drink and grow plants for food? We can build small micro hydro-electric systems to provide power as well to provide back-up.

I propose that we build Ice Hotel Type habitats in the Mars Ice Cap for exploration and human colony and establish this as out exploratory base camp on Mars. This outpost will be our first step in moving man beyond this pale blue dot. The ice cap makes a lot of sense as a place to build an outpost and colony. Who knows we may find some life already living there.