Exploring Mars A Waste Of Money?

[Seabass]

Exploration and scientific advancement are never wastes of money.

Either way, Curiosity cost each American taxpayer $7. Chump change compared to what we spend on drug wars, foreign wars, bank bailouts...

[Atheist-Lite]

Spending money time and effort to make a sustainable technological civilization is more critical right now than proving a point with current engineering know-how. I won't call it science. Engineering is not science. This landing was accomplished using engineering with science being done later. It may take two hundred years before anything else lands? but knowing about Mars is no use at all on the current unsustainable course of resource depletion and bio-sphere damage and violent species in-fighting. Science is no use if humans become extinct.

[pErvinalia]

Spending money time and effort to make a sustainable technological civilization is more critical right now than proving a point with current engineering know-how. I won't call it science. Engineering is not science. This landing was accomplished using engineering with science being done later. It may take two hundred years before anything else lands? but knowing about Mars is no use at all on the current unsustainable course of resource depletion and bio-sphere damage and violent species in-fighting. Science is no use if humans become extinct.

Focus your fucking energy on the real problem. Corporate greed and war. Not science/engineering. This isn't difficult stuff.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

When you tot up the money spent on cosmetics, designer clothing, a new car every year, the trendiest phone, sport season tickets, overpriced, designer perfume and deodorant (that is no more efficient and smells far worse than any budget-priced alternative), homeopathic "remedies", vitamin pills, house plants, lavish weddings, anything fronted by Simon Cowell, Justin Bieber's "music", 50 Shades of Grey, fake tan, subscriptions to christian TV channels, garden gnomes, Feng Shui consultations, premium rate tarot phonelines, personal horoscopes, instantly breakable, plastic Xmas presents for kids that would rather play with the box, brand-name medications that contain the same ingredients as the unbranded alternative for 10x the cost, gym memberships for people that would get 5x the exercise simply walking to the gym and back instead of spending an hour each-way in traffic to get there, unnecessary food packaging, thrown away food, cable subscriptions for 999 channels of which you watch only 3, any and every other example of fucking pointless, useless, trashy, human overconsumption...

It comes to quite a lot. Perhaps more than the combined human spend on sciency stuff EVAH! Perhaps that and abolish world poverty, disease and malnutrition, and a bit left over for free education for everyone and anyone that wants or needs it!

But hey, wait, if it means I have to buy ASDA, white label paracetamol instead of AnadinTM... FUCK THAT!!1! And just what is wrong with getting a Vajazzle?

[Clinton Huxley]

Using resources to post messages on forums decrying wasting of resources is a waste of resources.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

Using resources to post messages on forums decrying wasting of resources is a waste of resources.

Waster!!1!

[Horwood Beer-Master]

...Is exploring Mars worth the investment?...

If you're a libertarian - No.

If you're human - yes.

[rainbow]

...Is exploring Mars worth the investment?...

If you're a libertarian - No.

If you're human - yes.

Now if they spent some money on finding out why British Beer tastes like dishwater, then there might be some point to it.

[Horwood Beer-Master]

...Is exploring Mars worth the investment?...

If you're a libertarian - No.

If you're human - yes.

Now if they spent some money on finding out why British Beer tastes like dishwater, then there might be some point to it.

But that would be like spending money finding out why the Sun is icy-cold, or how Earth ended-up as the most massive planet in the solar system.

[Atheist-Lite]

If exploration is so important why spend so much money on a high risk venture. For a fraction of the money and the risk they could have returned to the moon and see what is there? I'm guessing it is because of the red color of Mars, if it had been a dull miserable grey like the moon they'd not have bothered half so much.

[JimC]

Although I love SF, and have a romantic attachment to the idea of human space exploration, on a purely rational basis, a manned trip to Mars (or even back to the moon) would be a waste of resources at the moment. NASA has shown clearly that sophisticated exploration and data gathering can be achieved by robotic vehicles, at a fraction of the cost of sending humans. Go robots!

[rainbow]

...Is exploring Mars worth the investment?...

If you're a libertarian - No.

If you're human - yes.

Now if they spent some money on finding out why British Beer tastes like dishwater, then there might be some point to it.

But that would be like spending money finding out why the Sun is icy-cold, or how Earth ended-up as the most massive planet in the solar system.

Quite.
It would be a pointless exercise.

Clearly dishwater tastes far better.

[pErvinalia]

English beer is the shit, man! I doubt very much whatever rebrand of Castle you're drinking there in Africa can come close to the quality and taste of English beer.

[rainbow]

English beer is the shit, man! I doubt very much whatever rebrand of Castle you're drinking there in Africa can come close to the quality and taste of English beer.

[pErvinalia]

Looks like horse piss.