HypotheticalOpenCloses in 16d 14h

Should humanity spend money colonising Mars?

A second home for the species against every problem the money could solve on the first one.

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ForVerdyct editorial

Almost none of the money spent on Mars is spent on Mars. It's spent here, on engineers, materials and closed-loop life support - the same reason the Apollo budget produced things that had nothing to do with the Moon. 'Fix Earth first' treats it as money leaving the planet, and it never leaves the planet.

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ForVerdyct editorial

The case isn't romance, it's variance. Any species confined to one planet carries a small but nonzero annual probability of extinction from a single event, and the only way to reduce it is a second population that doesn't share the same failure mode. It is expensive insurance on the only asset that cannot be replaced.

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