There were a couple of exciting announcement from NASA on the space exploration front this past week that are certainly worth noting.

In the first, NASA has announced plans to set up a polar moon base which they hope to permanently staff by 2024. While I certainly think they could pull it off sooner if they wanted to, and I have my doubts that this program will survive the next 18 years through however many administrations there might be in that time, I think this is a major step toward colonization of other planets and moons. Which, I believe, we must undertake in my lifetime if we hope to survive as a species. As we stand, all of our proverbial eggs are in one basket, and that basket's not in the best of shape at this point, not to even mention the possibility of a catastrophic natural event, meteor impact, nuclear warfare, etc.

Secondly, NASA announced that they've found evidence of water flowing on Mars. While I've seen people presenting evidence that they've found on NASA photographs of this for years, it's very exciting to see NASA jumping on board on the idea that there might be liquid water occasionally flowing on Mars. I think as we explore more in the universe we're going to find that there are more similarities on "alien" worlds than we expect. We're also going to find that there are many strange things we've never thought of, in all likelihood. However, if there's confirmed water on Mars, it certainly opens up the possibilities for not only life, but manned exploration and, eventually, permanent habitation.