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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Man in the Funny Hat" data-source="post: 5275495" data-attributes="member: 32740">We could do it right now.  There just isn't enough money or anticipated benefit to science to justify it. The moon is "easily" kept supplied from Earth compared to Mars.  A Mars colony really sort of needs to be self-contained, self-reliant.  This becomes MUCH easier when a reliable source of water can be identified.  Assuming that can be found, and again that the money and/or scientific benefit limitations are also overcome, I'd say 20 years (?) from today before plans could be finalized and committed to, then another 20 before it's actually on its feet. Absolutely indeterminate.  Short of purely fictional science and Star Trek levels of global peace and prosperity for the project, interstellar distances are functionally impractical for humanity to bridge with a colonization effort.  It's strictly a theoretical possibility.  May as well pick a date out of a hat - and then the technology available will likely make current technology seem literally stone-age.</blockquote>