Consider the last inhospitable area there was a rush to explore, Antarctica. The efforts to claim it haven't amounted to much, mostly because it's such a terrib

Consider the last inhospitable area there was a rush to explore, Antarctica. The efforts to claim it haven't amounted to much, mostly because it's such a terrible place to build settlements. Chile and Argentina have tried to make settlements at the very tip, but the population there is smaller than the population of the USA's McMurdo Station. Antarctic exploration is a good analogy. A little over a century ago, it was the new frontier. But as we advanced, the excitement gave way to cold reality. Though it was exciting at the time, I doubt most people could tell you who the first person to reach the South Pole was. And the doubtful that the journeys actually provided any benefit to modern researchers there. If we had simply waited a few decades and started exploring when the technology was there (the so-called "Mechanical age" of Antarctic exploration), fewer lives would have been lost and we would have been in the same place we are today.