Is it really necessary to send humans to those places just to get the knock-on benefits? Couldn’t we do those things directly, without going there?
It seems to me that, today, those who have the money to spend on these endeavors would only do so if there were perceived short-term benefits to themselves. That means they plan to exploit the resources, or increase their own power somehow.
I know the good engineers that make this happen are doing it for the challenge and in the pursuit of knowledge, and I know that’s why we poors support it, but that doesn’t “pay the bills.” What is the motivation behind the money? Why are they really doing this?
I’m done with this conversation, but I’ll address this:
Luna is the name of Earth’s moon. Have you heard of the term lunatic? That term came from people worshiping Earth’s moon, Luna. I don’t know why some people don’t know its name. The Moon is not a name. Moon is a description. Luna is the name.
Earth is named Earth. It’s not “The Planet” which would be the equivalent name as The Moon. Earth is a name. Terra, Tellus, Gaia are all also names for it. Mars is the name of the fourth planet from the sun. The sun is named Sol, which is why solar system means our star system. There are other star systems, but only one solar system. You can’t compare solar systems to each other because there aren’t any other solar systems. There’s only the one.
Maybe a colony on Venus would be an even more exciting challenge than Mars?