NASA announced yesterday that it had confirmed the existence of water on Mars, at least in the form of subsurface ice. Scientists have had good evidence for several years of water on Mars, but the Phoenix Mars Lander was finally able to deliver a sample of the ice into its lab, heat it, and confirm it was made of water. If that ground truth can be used to validate evidence of water obtained from orbiting probes, there would seem to be more than enough water to support human exploration and settlement of the planet.
The next goal for Phoenix, however, is to look for organic compounds and molecules, starting with the ice sample. If organics are discovered, that wouldn't necessarily prove Mars has Martians, but it would confirm the building blocks of life are present. Mix water, organics, and a more hospitable climate in the past, and the case for life on Mars at some point becomes fairly strong.
If life arose independently on at least two worlds in the same solar system, that would strongly argue life is common throughout the universe. With any luck, we should be able to settle the question of how rare or abundant life actually is yet this century.
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