General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: We should have been colonizing the solar system by now. [View all]entanglement
(3,615 posts)Well-instrumented robots like Cassini, Galileo, New Horizons can easily go where humans cannot and provide outstanding science benefits as well. As someone mentioned up-thread, our knowledge of the solar system has increased dramatically these past few decades thanks to these probes.
OTOH, a manned mission to Mars isn't going to happen in our lifetimes. I agree with you that far more could be spent on space, but adding a human into the mix for interplanetary missions introduces too many problems.
I can't list them all here, but there are many, many "show-stoppers" in a potential manned Mars Mission. Solving all of them and being convinced of their reliability (necessary with humans on board) is many decades of engineering away. Doable, but not today. Astrophysicists who do basic physics feasibility calculations are of course correct in principle, but they seriously underestimate the engineering problems involved. There is a reason that landing a 1-ton, unmanned rover like Curiosity on Mars took 10 years of planning and problem solving and was hailed as a major achievement.
That's just Mars: The Galilean satellites of Jupiter are an even tougher nut to crack.