About the “rationale” for doing all this.
Even if no large object (asteroid, comet, etc) ever hits the Earth, that large ball of heat and light in the sky, also known as the Sun, will eventually expand, and we humans will have to be elsewhere.
Musk talks about consciousness being multi-planetary, so that all that we are and have done is not lost.
And yes, yes, I know that God is good and God is great. I do not pretend to know all of God’s plan. Friends and family state that long before the Sun expands, we will all be called home. Perhaps. In the meantime, God gave us this IMMENSE curiosity, and the ability to increase our individual and collective abilities to push forward.
Mars is just the first logical step. We will build large and small space stations in our Solar System. Living and mining in the asteroid belt is a no brainer. People have mentioned Titan. Titan is basically a gas station. On Titan there are oceans of hydrocarbons. It rains hydrocarbons.
I’m with you. Space is just another frontier, one that is more challenging. We’ll long for something as simple as redskins.