06 FOR DISCOVERING WATER ON MARS

oberto Orosei knew as early as 2008 that he’d found something exciting bouncing off the surface of Mars: bright radar “reflections,” spanning about 12 in August 2018. He won’t be proven wrong, or right, for a long time. “Unless Elon Musk can get to Mars before NASA, any serious exploration of the Martian surface and what’s beneath is at least 20 years away,” he says. For now, Orosei has his sights on Jupiter’s moon Europa, which is suspected of harboring an ocean beneath its crust and will be within range of European and U.S. radar probes within the next few years.