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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Clint_L" data-source="post: 9887010" data-attributes="member: 7035894">Well, we're drifting off topic, but I think the idea of permanent settlements on Mars and the Moon is absurd. I totally love crewed spaceflight as a way of getting people excited about science (so basically as PR), but as a practical matter, it makes no sense.A base on the Moon, let alone Mars, would be so wildly expensive and impractical that it makes no sense. An undersea habitat on Earth would be far, far more practical, and it's not like we're rushing to build those. Or in Antarctica. Hell, my own country, Canada, has millions of square kilometres of basically unihabited land that already has atmosphere, soil, and water; it's just cold...though a lot warmer than Mars.Spending the kind of money it would take not just to build but to support colonies on other planets or satellites is ludicrously outlandish given that we can't even find it in ourselves to spend a fraction of that money maintaining the one we already have.I could see something like the temporary bases depicted in Weir's The Martian, but those will basically be for bragging rights and hype. I could also see something like a mining colony on an asteroid where the minerals were valuable enough to justify the incredible expense...but again, I doubt that much practical space work will be done by humans when robots can do it much more safely and efficiently.</blockquote>