Men on Mars

[hot_pastrami]

Originally posted by Elionwyr
Point being: we have areas on this planet that are harsh and inhospitable. Makes more sense to try to populate those areas, where 'colonists' have a better chance of being rescued should something go wrong, than someone living on another planet.

Well, the reason we want to go to Mars isn't because it's inhospitable, nor to colonize (at least not in the near future). We want to go because no one has ever been there before, and it is a unique environment to study and learn from. Also, developing the technology to go to Mars will significantly increase the area of explorable space.

That's the reason research teams went to Antarctica in the first place. They learn a lot from scientific visits, but the environment isn't hospitable enough to set up permananet residence. Mars would be the same.

I think that Griff was referring to the negative reaction one might get from a number of nations as a result of setting up a permanant colony on Antarctica... ownership of the landmass is debatable.