But considering NASA's getting shoved back in the dark because the U.S. government insists on burning away planet-sized wads of money to go marauding around the world, and the ESA is doomed if Europe has any more countries that go under,
Mars has to wait
. But regardless of whether or not powerful people start caring about science again or corporations take over the space gig, the oceans remain one of many final frontiers we have left to challenge to their full extents. But enough cynicism from me, it's definitely exciting stuff for a huge number of fields to be exploring the oceans. Even as far as energy goes, discoveries under the sea have been integral to the development of hydrogen-powered technology that exists today for example, among many other things, so there's a whole lot of hope.