On Earth, where you find water, you find life, so today’s announcement from NASA of flowing water on Mars is far more important than you might imagine. The photos from the Mar’s rovers look almost like the high desert of the American West, but remember  that Mars has only 1/100th of our atmosphere, and the temperature is well below zero most of the time. However, and this is key- when we look at Earth, we find life where there is even the tiniest amount of water, and we find it in the most extreme environments. Life survives in extreme heat of over 150 degrees, extreme pressure, and frigid cold. Life seems to almost always find a way, even in places where it would seem almost impossible for it to so. When you consider that, the discovery on Mars of running water makes your imagination run wild.

It is now within the technological capability of we humans to send man (and ever more sophisticated) machines to Mars, to answer the greatest scientific question of our age, and perhaps of any age. Are we alone, Is our Earth the only place where life evolved, or are we just another outpost of life among countless others. All we need to find out is the collective will of humanity to do so.