The biggest problem with getting to Mars is that it is a non-profit frontier. It will be a great mark to make, but with benefit of little to none for the kind of problems humans and heading towards - global warming, over-population, resources depletion.
For Starters, if it when humans reach for the stars that we become innovative and inventive; for an example, things like Baby formula, Water filtration devices, padded soles in shoes, computers were thanks to the innovation and invention that allowed for man to walk on the moon just imagine what can be invented with the prospect of a colony. Also if we successfully colonise Mars we can start to put a dent in the over-population problem you mention.
The mission to the moon in effect; for the first time, people saw the whole of the Earth. Photos of the globe were popular, and changed the way we thought of our home planet. Seeing all of it at once made people realise how small and fragile it is, kick-starting the environmental movement. People began to think of the planet as something that needed to be protected and saved. Through a mission to Mars humanity may discover cleaner and more powerful forms and or sources of energy to sustain us in to the future.
I can understand, for example, the great expense made for the big hadron collider, but even that thing seems a lot more down to earth an endeavour than the travel to Mars, which in itself will cost a lot more, but give almost nothing in return, if anything at all.
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is an amazing piece of scientific equipment without a doubt, but it cannot compare marvels and knowledge that we as a species can gain from a manned mission to Mars. It is a pity that money seems to always be raised when talking about these things when all other points of discussion are exhausted. It would be nice to live in a world where money did not exist. [/QUOTE]
It seems that all the craziness about space exploration came to us from the cold war when concurring the space first was a big doctrine pushed by the opposing governments. And I see no good reason for us to continue paying big time for that ill sentiment.
That may be the case, but governments competing to advance humanity as a whole is surely better than a nuclear war that may very well have prevented us as a species from even being able to converse about these topics. And again with the money...
If we can't make good on our home planet, we won't do it elsewhere. There is a good saying - you can't cure a soul simply by carrying the body from one place to another.
Let’s not forget it is all about broadening our knowledge and understanding. sometime people need to step out from the box and gain a larger view of life before they can focus on fixing the problems, I would like to draw your attention to my second comment; Had humanity had not gone to the moon, our perception of the planet and its fragility would not have changed. It is due to this that the whole environmental movement started moreover unless we challenge ourselves and push for the unknown our species will stagnate and we will not have the knowledge to fix our problems.
Let all not forget what Francis Bacon said "Knowledge is Power" if we humans don't push to learn and better ourselves and our understanding of the world and universe around us we will ultimately not have the power to even save ourselves if we needed to into the future.
