While visiting the Smithsonian Natural History museum two years ago, I teared up while touching a piece of a Mars meteorite. I was filled with dread prior to th

While visiting the Smithsonian Natural History museum two years ago, I teared up while touching a piece of a Mars meteorite. I was filled with dread prior to the James Webb's launch and filled with elation after the dang thing actually worked. I dunno, I'm just saying: I'm passionate about this stuff. And yet IDGAF about putting people on Mars. Mars is a dead wasteland. It will always be a dead wasteland. It's freezing, there's radiation, there's very little atmosphere. Life on Mars would be so far beyond bleak that it's beyond imagination. There's no science humans can do there that probes can't do better for a given amount of money. There's also a much higher risk of accident and death than the moon landings, and such things have a potential to be huge net negatives for the whole space effort. Aside from billionaire tourism it's hard to imagine any economic benefit either, though I agree that shouldn't be a hard requirement for scientific progress. If we had a way to get there and back and put settlements there cheaply and safely it might start to seem more exciting. That can never be a reality with current propulsion technology. Maybe in 50-100 years if fusion becomes a thing?