Future of Space Flight

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Originally Posted by slipstrike0159

Talking about resources specifically, how would it be that critical to colonize mars? Unless some kind of special rule applies to growing food there (for example, being able to do it faster or more often) then there isnt much extra incentive to be living there. I'll buy that with a growing population we will need more space, but that doesnt account for the costs AND consumption of resources that would get us up there and living there anyway.
For scientific purposes i think its a great idea to be able to get there, however colonizing it i believe would cost more resources than it would produce. Until we could be self sustainable, we would have to strap all the materials we need on another rocket and send it there.

It would be critical because it's a first step. I don't think sitting on our asses and waiting for the technology to get us to far away stars is going to achieve anything.

Anyway, you could definitely create viable green houses there. There are probably some resources on the planet anyway, I'm not positive. Either way, the point here isn't to look at the short term benefit, it's to look at the long term.