My understanding of your position was that we don't need the whole Mars thing in order to accomplish more domestic goals (cheap rockets), and my position is tha

My understanding of your position was that we don't need the whole Mars thing in order to accomplish more domestic goals (cheap rockets), and my position is that a Mars program will force us to develop much more advanced tech that will benefit us here than we would have otherwise. > How much slower will they work when they don't have quick access to a modern industrial civilization? Give it a couple centuries :) Civilization building is not a short term plan. And the fact that they won't have (easy) access to the rest of the species is part of what will force them to create innovative, home-grown solutions.