> Someone has to pave the way for humanity to spread out into solar system This is less interesting, I think, than spreading out into the galaxy, and the rest

> Someone has to pave the way for humanity to spread out into solar system This is less interesting, I think, than spreading out into the galaxy, and the rest of the universe. Now, is this realistic? Absolutely, it's just important to remember that it's not happenning soon or over a short period of time. It'll probably take millions of years. But, ultimately, mars is just a jumping-off point, and past that it's much more interesting to attempt to get to and terraform other planets on other stars.