[Sparta]

This is good news. It is humanity's destiny to control the stars and this is the first step.

[weikel]

Beginning space colonization could rejuvenate American civilization... the thing is it won't be able to act as a safety valve( the way the Old West was) for that many people, as a martian colony (when in probably 30 or 40 years we get the technology to support one as of now the logistics just aren't possible, hydroponics and some ability to generate oxygen could make such a colony self succficient) will not be able to support a large mass of people not initially anyway. Most likely Mars would be used as a base of operations for mining the Asteroid belt. I reccomend we tackle the moon 1st and work to develop the neccasary science and technology in lightsails, artificial gravity( probably the most difficult as the science is not well understood), robotic probes, terraforming etc. Then expand outward through the solar system.

[Salgak]

Absolutely. Let the meek inherit the Earth: the Bold are going to the Stars. . . .

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

...It is humanity's destiny to control the stars...

You're a, uh...glass half full kind of person aren't you?