
Why we're not going to Mars - msmol
https://e4a-net.org/2017/01/24/why-were-not-going-to-mars-by-timothy-crownshaw/
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MrZongle2
I can't help but think that the author, had he lived in 1600, would have
argued a similar point about why we're not going to the Americas.

After all, there are no roads or churches, the place is full of strange
animals, plants and potentially hostile natives, and there's no guarantee that
proper European crops will even grow there! And how much will it cost and how
long will it take for such a colony to become self-sufficient, if ever?

Defeatism. Bah.

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beamatronic
There are a lot of good points in this article but this comment overlooks one
thing:

"I’ll admit there still may be an outside chance that some consortium will
fund and execute a mission to send a few poor, intrepid souls on a one-way
trip to live short lives on Mars in a gruesome experiment, televised for all
to watch."

There are people willing to make the one-way trip, and the ethics of this have
been discussed at length [1]

But it seems to me that the one thing we would have to probably "let go" of is
worrying about "contaminating" Mars.

[1]
[http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2015/0...](http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2015/04/death_in_space_the_ethics_of_dealing_with_astronauts_bodies.html)

