Surely a colony on the moon should come first. It's a viable destination and within a short rescue time. Maybe not as glamourous but a similar test of technology at lower cost and we could look up at night and see morse code signals etc. It will give people a greater connection plus delay times between transmissions are lower. Just to look up and see a reflective glint from the base would be amazing.

Going to mars is like running before you can walk. The next logical step is a permanent base on the moon. What we learn on the moon will make Mars far easier as the next step. Also if there are valuable resources on the moon its viable to send them to earth.

These holes/pits make living on the moon more viable. Ideal for habitats under the edges and a greenhouse environment in the middle.

http://www.theverge.com/2014/7/18/5915743/nasa-moons-underground-caves-could-house-astronauts

Agreed moon colony/semi-terraformation of the moon should happen first, but once we get that down, we'll be able to take the step to Mars a lot more rapidly.

Is that actually possible? Heating up Mars and it becoming more earth like when it comes to living on it.

It probably is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terraforming_of_Mars

Is Musk's idea possible? IDK.

Old news. Space X and Mars 1 have been around for years.

Not really. They'll just land and then come back. Woop die do!

That's actually really cool if it could happen.

I love to see private investment in any kind of space travel. But, governments have no business funding a Mars mission. So, no, I'm not happy about my tax dollars being spent in this way.

People here clearly don't realise how much new NASA technology made for missions like this improve life for all of us.

Also NASA get a criminally tiny percentage of the government budget.

Tax dollars are spent on a lot of frivilous bullshit, I'd say the future survival of the human race is something we can afford to spend a few dollars on.