So, why aren't we on Mars yet?

[El_Machinae]

if going to mars was going to make us better off, I think we wouldn't need public investment

Don't fall for this line of thinking, too often*: public investment is also good for projects that suffer from short-sightedness and for projects that are under-invested due to the Free Rider concerns.

*Not that you are, but it bears mentioning publically.

 

[mdwh]

You'd be surprised how many people evade poverty by growing coffee. Or producing microchips. Getting a cup of coffee or buying a computer is a great way to do something about world poverty. Blasting billions of dollars worth of high-tech equipment into outer space however...

Presumably that high-tech equipment include microchips and other things made by people in poverty. And those NASA geeks need their coffee...

People keep bringing up poverty in these kinds of debates, because other people say we must go to other planets. Like it's our heavenly duty or something.

I don't know if it's our duty, but it's fair for people to say that we should

It's only natural that people point to the fact that we're not that good at managing one planet, so there's not much use in going to another one.

That doesn't follow, if you ask me. As I think someone else said, the other planets are already badly messed up in terms of supporting human life, so we can't exactly badly manage them.

 

[mdwh]

Strange that the people who've been on the Moon (1/6 gravity) didn't report any such problems after they had returned to Earth.

That was only a matter of days though.

Although we presumably have a better idea of effects of low (or zero) gravity from the people who have spent years in orbit.