The discovery of flowing water on the red planet has a local man even more excited about his future travel plans.
Hampton Black of Tampa is one of 100 finalists for the privately-funded Mars One project -- a one way ticket to the planet to form a colony millions of miles away.
If chosen, and if the project reaches its goals in the next 10 years, Black will say goodbye forever to everyone and everything here on earth.
"Just the wind blowing through your hair, the sand between your toes. That stuff is gone. You're not going to see that kind of stuff," he said.
Seeing the new images of water moving down a hill on Mars has Black dreaming about what he may discover there one day.
"The chances of finding microscopic life just increased substantially," Black said. "I think it gets people excited, like 'wow, maybe there is life out there'."
If the Mars One project happens to fizzle out, there's another option: NASA is planning a manned mission to Mars in the next 15 years.
The key difference is they plan to bring the crew safely back home.
As space enthusiasts are left wondering about what's really out there, perhaps Hollywood can feed our curiosity.
The star-studded movie, The Martian opens in theaters this week, right on cue.
Black plans to see it this weekend.
"We're talking about a frozen world and to be able to hold water in liquid form is pretty amazing," he said.
