An MSNBC anchor, introducing a Tuesday press conference from NASA, misspoke about the discovery the scientists would be announcing, telling viewers they had found evidence of &uot;longtime habitation&uot; on Mars.

Not quite. But the news that rocks on one part of the Red Planet were once &uot;soaked&uot; in enough water to sustain life is an amazing discovery, one that should fuel our further space exploration.

We haven’t found any little green men, but we have found evidence that little green plants &045;&045; or some other life &045;&045; was once able to live there.

With twin robotic rovers roaming the planet as we speak, we are learning so much about Mars’ past &045;&045; which could help us learn more about our planet’s future.

The work these robots are doing, however, cannot substitute for greater exploration &045;&045; imagine if rovers were able to return to earth with rock and soil samples or even if humans were able to explore Mars.

President Bush, in a move many criticized as a pie-in-the-sky election ploy, pledged in January that we would return to the moon and later venture to Mars on manned missions.

We know this is a costly plan, but it is worth it. The knowledge we are gaining from the current Mars explorations will only be expanded &045;&045; and further study can only help us.