PsxMeUP

To have a productive (as in, something more than just going there to plant our flag) expedition to Mars we need a permanent base on the Moon to get the basics of planetary colonization down, and that hasn't happened yet, so the whole Mars thing is just for expensive bragging rights. If you want to brag about humanity's achievements, how about fixing all the major problems on Earth first? Our "leaders" are desperately trying to implement a debt-based global economy, which is akin to backing our currency with less-than-nothing (basically a good old pyramid scheme, but on a planetary level); we're conducting mass-genocide on all our planet's microorganisms with our chemical pesticides and fertilizers (effectively destroying our fauna for a hundred years everywhere we go); we have based our economies on perpetual growth, which is reflected in our constantly rising population (and in case you didn't know, our planet isn't perpetually growing along with us); and we're basically pushing every agenda through fear tactics. So how about we spread all that crap to other planets? Nice.