Comment by GaggiX
5 days ago
Are you saying that the benefit to humanity of a Mars mission is that if the Earth explodes, we have an uninhabitable planet (under any realistic expectations) to stay on?
5 days ago
Are you saying that the benefit to humanity of a Mars mission is that if the Earth explodes, we have an uninhabitable planet (under any realistic expectations) to stay on?
No, he clearly said that a "second home for humanity" is of dubious (but potentially nonzero) value.
Rather, the main benefit would lie in the technological advances made in order to enable such a Mars mission in the first place (similar to advances during Apollo).
>Rather, the main benefit would lie in the technological advances made in order to enable such a Mars mission in the first place
I agree with this view, but the comment I was replying to only mentioned as a benefit that Mars could be a second home (which I find rather ridiculous).
> the comment I was replying to only mentioned as a benefit that Mars could be a second home
The first and second sentences of that comment literally say
> A Mars mission would benefit humanity, but less directly. The past lunar missions and space program benefited humanity in many ways.
And then it goes on to acknowledge the "second home" element, but only as a small consideration.
1 reply →
No, for a succesful Mars mission certain scientific progress has to be made. Unlike in economy, in science such things trickle down to us mortals.
Economic advances don't trickle down to "us mortals"?
Dude, the relentless decrease in cost of manufactured items, this decrease that makes your current way of life possible, is driven by exactly that. Manufacturers are in life-or-death competition and we consumers reap the benefit as prices are driven ever downward.
No, I was making a joke about trickledown economics.
No, that’s not what I’m saying. That seems of questionable value. Unless some crazy tail event happens that makes it valuable.
The benefit to humanity is the technological advancement.