> The ability to go west was well understood and already successful by other Europeans by then, namely the various Norse colonizations. And our ability to go

> The ability to go west was well understood and already successful by other Europeans by then, namely the various Norse colonizations. And our ability to go to Mars isn't imaginary either (even if we haven't sent people). Also, I've never seen literature claiming the Norse expeditions were very well known. (Not saying that doesn't exists, just that I haven't seen them.) > SpaceX doesn't even have the ability to go. Comparing Columbus's low hanging fruit to Mars colonization is pretty unconvincing, especially on the economic front where colonization of the Americas was deeply profitable almost instantly, while Mars would be a welfare state. It wasn't know that America would be profitable. Granted it was thought spice trade would be. The point of the quote is that Europeans chose to take on an expensive exploratory endeavour (with the hope of a profit) even though they had issues at home.