Another Pie in the Sky

Wikipedia has lots of information about proposed manned missions to Mars, but I couldn't find anything that indicates that anybody has concrete plans to actually do it. I read two articles, one is titled "Manned Mission to Mars", and the other is called "Mars to Stay". It seems there are a number of clubs or organizations that have been promoting this thing for decades. At least some of them appear to be run by legitimate scientists who really believe in what they're doing, but I don't think that any of them has the means to actually pull it off themselves. They have done all the research, and now they want the government or somebody else to do the actual work.

When Bush II was president, he initiated a program to establish a permanent base on the Moon, with the intention that it would be used as a stepping stone to Mars someday, but congress has since defunded the program.  Former Moon walker Buzz Aldrin believes that it would be a waste of time and resources to go back to the Moon. He says that there's nothing there that would be of any use to a Mars mission, or of any use for any purpose for that matter. I suppose he ought to know. Aldrin is a firm believer in the "Mars to Stay" concept, and has been lobbying for it for years.

You brought up a good point that I hadn't previously considered: Any successful colony on Mars would be bound to declare its independence sooner or later. Maybe that's why it's so hard to get the government interested in this sort of thing. It might be better if somebody from the private sector did it instead, and maybe they will some day. All those multinational corporations have no loyalty to any particular government anyway. They will go anywhere and do anything if they think there's money in it. Or course, if they get into trouble, they want the government to bail them out at taxpayer expense.

What we need is a constitutional amendment that says no more bailouts, including interplanetary ones. Take the money saved thereby and apply it to stopping climate change. Not more research on climate change, doing some physical thing that actually works to stop it. There I go again, launching another pie into the sky!