> How do you propose we allocate those billions? I propose we don't collect the billions in the first place. > Sending people to Mars would cost a few times a

> How do you propose we allocate those billions? I propose we don't collect the billions in the first place. > Sending people to Mars would cost a few times as much as the construction (inflation adjusted) of the US interstate highway system. [1] Sending a few people and even establishing some kind of 'base' is not the same as colonizing. That's just the cost of getting 9 crews there and back. If the article is implying Apollo-sized crews, that's not very many people. Heavy machinery, concrete, steel/aluminum, fuel, everything needed to create structures. The costs will be innumerable, and for what benefit? So potentially a select few people get to fly to Mars and live there?