The man who can tell you everything about what it takes to terraform Mars is not surprised by the confirmation of water on the Red Planet. In his three “Mars” novels (Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars), Kim Stanley Robinson constructed a vision of the Red Planet and humanity’s evolving relationship with it that spans hundreds of years and as many characters. The achievement has been likened to “War and Peace with spaceships”; another comparison might be to a space-age Moby Dick. Robinson spoke to SPACE.com about the discovery of an indispensable requirement for life as we know it, whether native to the Red Planet or imported from Earth.