It's interesting, we used to have to bring people back to do our exploration, but in some ways thanks to high-quality video that need is less and less. If you

It's interesting, we used to have to bring people back to do our exploration, but in some ways thanks to high-quality video that need is less and less. If you think of society as a single entity then the notion of 'bringing people back' doesn't have as much meaning as it used to. We don't need martian resources (other than the space) and anything else is a souvenir. People had to go and come back from the Americas because of the lack of video (no other way to see it) and because we wanted something the Americas had (gold, wood, coal, cotton etc). We went to the Moon a few times, but it didn't have very much of anything we needed. Also you can pull up a video of what it's like to walk or drive on the moon anytime you want. While I agree the full return trip is a higher, more noble goal I just don't see the same forces at work that will require regular back and forth trips.