If peace on earth is no longer feasible by the end of the century, you may have another option: Move to Mars!

Yesterday, the head of NASA's surface exploration mission said if we can find water on the red planet, people would be able to land there within the next 20-30 years.

Since January, two partially solar-powered "robot geologists" -- Mars Exploration Rovers, or MERs -- have been beaming back data from the planet and its craters.

Scientists often call Mars is Earth's sister planet. The two planets are close enough in size to have the same physical properties.

Asked how long it could be before astronauts land on Mars, Arthur Thompson, mission manager for MER surface operations, told Reuters in an interview in Lima, "My best guess is 20 to 30 years, if that becomes our primary priority."

The two MER robots, dubbed Spirit and Opportunity, have found ancient evidence that water was once plentiful -- important for scientists hoping to know if there was once -- or could still be -- life on Mars.

With water, the dream of sending astronauts to the often dusty planet, which has rust-colored rocks and where the sky is red and sunsets are blue, could come true.

"Water is the key," said Thompson. ""If it's there, we'll find it," he said.

Such a mission would take 11 to 12 months to get to Mars and it would be impossible to carry enough water for the astronauts, plus the water needed to make rocket fuel for the return journey, to cool the spacecraft and to generate energy.

At Purdue University, under a $10 million, five-year grant from NASA researchers are attempting to tap into this precious source which include unconventional means.

The project is part of NASA's Specialized Center of Research and Training (NSCORT) for Advanced Life Support.

Imagine being able to quench your thirst with water recovered from waste.

Purdue University engineers and agronomists are testing plants to identify ones that can grow normally when fed sewage. If drinkable water can be reclaimed from plants, they would transport seed or plant cuttings to grow the necessary vegetation on Mars and a special bioreactor to process waste. The astronauts also would need equipment to recover water from the greenery.

Jeff Volenec, a crop physiologist in the Department of Agronomy said, "'When you think of the tens of thousands of gallons of water a family goes through in a month, 1,000 gallons isn't much."

This summer, the Diabetic Youth Foundation had to close their camp because they needed 30,000 gallons of water a day to ensure that their campers could bath, drink and swim. Transporting five 7,000 gallon trucks up into the High Sierra was too daunting of a task. As a result, dozens of families and their kids with Type 1 Diabetes (including ours) missed out on that once a year place they can go where they don't feel alone in the world.

If NASA is inspiring horticulturists, engineers and agronomists to ship water to Mars, perhaps the net result will also be beneficial to those still on earth.

In the coming 2004-2005 academic year, university teams from around the nation are being invited to participate in a new design competition aimed at developing innovative concepts for in-situ resource utilization (ISRU), demonstrating the feasibility of using lunar regolith as a source for oxygen, water and other commodities necessary for lunar exploration and research operations.

For a complete story on scientisits seeking waste-eating plants as a means for getting water to Mars, go to: ScienceBlog.com

For details on the Florida Space Research Institute & Grant Consortium's Lunar In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) university design competition, go to: FSRI.org

Letters of intent are due by October 17th. Proposals are due by November 19th, 2004.

Of course, a lot will depend on who is running our country next year.

Nature, the leading international science journal, posed the following question of both President George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry. This is what the journal asked and how the candidates responded:

NATURE:

Do you think the United States should send astronauts to the moon or Mars in the next 10 to 15 years? If so, why send humans instead of robots? If not, what is the purpose of the space shuttle and space station?

BUSH:

In January, I announced my vision for the future of America's space exploration program. As we complete our work on the International Space Station, we are developing a new manned exploration vehicle to explore beyond our orbit. This vehicle will be tested by 2008 and will conduct its first manned mission no later than 2014. America will return to the moon as early as 2015 and no later than 2020, and use it as a foundation for human missions beyond the moon. We will begin with robotic missions, and manned missions will follow. An extended human presence on the Moon could reduce the costs of further exploration.

KERRY:

Today, thanks to decades of public investment in space exploration activities, a rotating international team of astronauts is living and working in space on the International Space Station, a dozen Americans have walked on the moon, we have rovers exploring the surface of Mars and an armada of spacecraft continues to explore our Solar System. NASA is an invaluable asset to the American people and must receive adequate resources to continue its important mission of exploration. However, there is little to be gained from a space initiative that throws out lofty goals, but fails to support those goals with realistic funding. John Edwards and I are committed to increasing funding for NASA and space exploration because it not only makes critical contributions to our economy, it also expands our understanding of the world we live in.

To read Bush and Kerry's head-to-head responses to Nature's questions, which included issues related to stem-cell research, climate change, new nuclear weapons, missile defense, GM crops, US lifestyles, as well as manned space exploration, go to: Discovery.com

Here's to healthy, adventuresome, soulful and out-of-this-world recyclable living!

~ Jennifer King