In Thomas Golds "Deep Hot Biosphere", he also posits that Mars was indeed an ice-planet.
His theory was that the large volcanic escarpments would not have been able to support themselves without there being a "wall" to support them.
It would also help explain why the Tharsis Bulge and Olypus Mons havn't changed the planets plane of rotation.
I am actually curious about the makeup of the ices that would have been there. Seems like the -anes would be an interesting basis, but most of the rest of the moons and planets seem to have methane atmo's.
There is very little hydrous chemistry in the rocks on Mars, no matter the latest headlines, so there must have been another liquid carving all these channels.
If for most of it's history it was an iceball however, then small amounts of water, in isolated patches, would have the observed effects.
Phobos and Diemos appear to be parts of captured asteroids, and you can only capture a moon by having two bodies crash together. Did the rest of the bodies fall, and generate enough heat to vaporize the ices?
Recent studies of Venus and Mars have debunked the myth of solar wind stripping - even without a magnetosphere, you still can't strip off enough atmo to denude a planet.
Earth, Venus and Mars all lose about the same amount of atmo yearly.
