Better than going to Mars... we should open up the moon (at least the far side) to mining. That way, we can get commerce to find some innovative ways to get to the moon at less cost, and safely, and that’s most of the work of getting to and from Mars. And then once at Mars, yes, we can study terraforming a bit and figure out how much our atmosphere really affects us.
>>Better than going to Mars... we should open up the moon (at least the far side) to mining. That way, we can get commerce to find some innovative ways to get to the moon at less cost, and safely, and that’s most of the work of getting to and from Mars. And then once at Mars, yes, we can study terraforming a bit and figure out how much our atmosphere really affects us. <<
Really need to work on building a infrastructure on the moon that is mostly robotic mining and smelting and manufacturing base. That way when we send people back to the moon , everything will be ready and mostly built for them. We could even establish a permanent colony built by robots and later settled by humans with minimal effort.
Robotic mining techniques could also help us mine the earth in areas that are harsh like the deserts and the antarctic.