[Fitzcarraldo]

The question in such cases isn't "Is it worth doing?", it's "Given that we have finite resources, is it more worth doing than something else".

The Moon is a diversion on the critical path to space resource self-sufficiency beyond Earth. Mars has all the components, in large enough quantities necessary to sustain an independent human colony without resupply from Earth. The Moon cannot ever hope to match Mars in terms of resources and hence will always be a resource sink in space operations.

[longtermmemmory]

Mars does not have a magnetic field like the earth and is not protected from solar winds like earth.

Only Jupiter has the same type of van allen belt, hence the consistent statement of scientists that Jupiter moons might be the only other place in the solar system to find life.