>If we don't someone else will. How do we prevent that. This thought process alone shows me that we probably aren't even mature enough as a species to go to Ma

>If we don't someone else will. How do we prevent that. This thought process alone shows me that we probably aren't even mature enough as a species to go to Mars. A mission like that will likely need global cooperation, effectively dooming it. If China somehow went to Mars on their own they deserve whatever benefit they were to get from and we shouldn't aim to prevent space exploration because of who does it.