[beowulf_cluster]

In and of itself, the attempt to colonize Mars probably won't do much for the species. The value is in actually going through the paces: developing primary technologies, techniques, protocols, and doing research, especially observing how organisms (ultimately, humans) are affected by extraterrestrial life, etc.

If the worst comes to pass and the species needs to throw a hail mary, I have to think our chances of success would be improved (even if slightly) if we were to have these sorts of details ironed-out in advance.

[tashi]

There's also the terraforming possibility, even though that's still a long, long way away. It may turn out to be easier to create a habitable atmosphere from scratch than to make even relatively small changes to our own, since the Earth already has all these complex feedback loops. There's also not as much margin for error here because, as The Tick would say, this is where we keep all our stuff.