[kr99x]

People saying that we should not bother colonizing Mars at all are clearly wrong. I can buy the argument that we should not yet do it, but come on.

The Earth will one day be dust, whether by astronomical disaster or by the sun's natural lifecycle moving to later stages. We live on the Earth. If we do not go elsewhere, we will be dust at that time. So for self-preservation, we'll need to go elsewhere eventually.

Mars is elsewhere, and is much easier to reach/terraform/colonize than say... Proxima Centauri B. Mars is a good "practice" shot at being elsewhere.

So obviously, we should go to Mars. It's just a question of when.