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ArnoldRimmer said:
Jumpin said:
What I think is "sillier" than people thinking the moon landing was fake, is that the heavily in debt US government is spending billions and billions of dollars each year on a manned mission to Mars; and how all of those who support it think that this landing will magically result in a means for people to terraform Mars and move our population there - meaning, for them, it is OK to trash our current planet because we'll all be going to a terraformed Mars soon anyway.

Completely ignoring that the manned mission to mars is already expensive enough for a small craft, what sort of expenses and resources will be required for colony ships to Mars? Why on Earth do you think a Terraformed Mars, which will both be colder, and with a lower gravity, would be superior to Earth? And how do you think it will be possible to terraform Mars?

Wouldn't just a little environmentalism be much much easier?

I think you completely misinterpret the intention of the mars missions. The scientists don't think: "Hey, let's polute the earth and simply move on to mars as soon as the situation here gets uncomfortable!"

If a bigger asteroid hits earth, all human life on earth will be extinct. And the question isn't IF it's going to happen, the question is WHEN this is going to happen: Next week? Next year? Next millenium? In several billion years? Nobody knows. Mankind will only have a chance of survival if by the time we have found a way to live on another planet or in space.

Currently, protecting the earth's environment is definitely more urgent, but that doesn't mean there is no sense in researching possibilities to populate other planets already now.

The thing is, Earth is the only planet in the solar system that is capable of sustaining multicellular life. If people are afraid of an asteroid hitting the earth, then it would be FAR easier developing technology to prevent an asteroid from hitting the earth then it would be to terraform and travel to another planet. First of all, as far as science has shown, Earth is the only suitable planet for the survival of multicellular life.

The US put 19 billion into NASA this year, that's 19 billion the US couldn't afford, and 19 billion that could have gone A LOT further in developing useful pro-environmental technology. The best thing we have got out of NASA are margarine and tang; and was that really worth the 800 billion dollars that they have been funded over the decades?



I describe myself as a little dose of toxic masculinity.