Mars continues to surprise us at every turn. We expect Odyssey to remove some of the uncertainties and help us plan where we must go with future missions.

We've lost to teams that are highly rated or have much bigger programs. The results should help us mentally when we compete in (Class) AA. The season gives us a measuring stick of where we are.

This dramatic confirmation of standing water in Mars' history builds on a progression of discoveries about that most earthlike of alien planets. This result gives us impetus to expand our ambitious program of exploring Mars to learn whether microbes have ever lived there and, ultimately, whether we can.

There are a lot of people that are surprised that Hubble can even look at planets in our solar system, because they think of Hubble as looking back to the beginning of time or at things billions of times fainter than the eye can see. But indeed, about 15 percent of the time Hubble spends observing our own planets.

Everyone on Earth who has ever dreamed of being an explorer on an alien planet will want to go along for the ride.

Life on Earth was not a cosmic fluke but part of a broad imperative. Mars is a lot like Earth. And billions of years ago it had some kind of atmosphere and huge quantities of flowing water.