Now.
Now it takes 6 months.
Now it would not be profitable.
Now there are transportation issues.
Sewards Folly turned out to be a pretty good deal for us.
We need to stop looking backwards and being afraid to take a risk.
One difference: Sewards Folly was ON THE LAND and not 42 million miles away in space.
Mining and transportation of ores was not a major problem and only took a few weeks at most to processing mills and/or assay offices.
The ores didn’t have to go through reentry in hugh metal capsules or ships.
Only if the ore ship could reach the ground would it be financially feasible to mine Mars, but what would be the valuable ores up there that we don’t have down here?
We don’t need iron ores, nickel, etc. from Mars as we have nice supplies out in New Mexico, Arizona and Minnesota.