so it looks like robotic missions are getting more respect.

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WASHINGTON - The conclusive discovery by a pair of wheeled robots that Mars once had vast pools of water and possibly could have harbored life was chosen by the editors of the journal Science as the most important scientific achievement of 2004.

NASA’s two Mars rovers, Opportunity and Spirit, landed on the Red Planet early in 2004 and have since found clear and conclusive evidence that Mars was drenched with water at some time in its history.

The editors of Science, one of the world’s leading publishers of peer-reviewed, original research, judged the robotic accomplishment as the top scientific “Breakthrough of the Year.”

“Inanimate, wheeled, one-armed boxes roaming another planet have done something no human has ever managed,” Science reported in this week’s edition. “They have discovered another place in the universe where life could once have existed.”

Nine other scientific achievements, including discovery of another species of human, were selected as runners-up, but Science editor-in-chief Donald Kennedy said “there wasn’t much doubt about this year’s winner.”