So just to quickly cover the Earth Reliant phase, which was the first one which we’re wrapping up, that was all about the International Space Station in orbit around the Earth and all about astronauts living on the station for extended periods of time, to study how low gravity environment, how living in space basically affects the human body. And I think we saw a couple weeks ago, President Trump talking to a woman astronaut who had been on the station for I think it was about two years, which just seems incredible to me that someone could live in space for that long. But nonetheless, that was part of this Earth Reliant phase, during which the technologies are being tested, but it’s still close to the earth. And we can sort of develop these technologies in close proximity to our planet.

So with that information, the question I guess comes up, why do this? Why go to Mars in the first place? So, let’s start with an audio clip we found of Buzz Aldrin from an interview that he gave on the Nat Geo channel a few years ago. And let’s listen to that and then discuss.

Now, the program manager for this, from Burdell, works with JPL. Steve Squires said verbally, but then put it in writing that their two rovers that were working for five years with one day’s instructions. And then they would try to do what the one day’s instructions were. But they were very conservative because they didn’t know whether it was going to tip over the hill or not. When it began to get close, the instructions said, “Stop. Don’t do anything. We’ll figure it out.” Well this is pretty slow activities. So slow that he said what these two rovers had done in five years could have been done in one week, if we had human intelligence in orbit around Mars.

So I think the first thing that we want to do, and what Buzz is talking about sort of helps to frame, is that these different plans for Mars, whether it be the ideas of Buzz Aldrin, who has written on the topic extensively, whether it be NASA’s plans, whether it be some other country other than the United States or some private enterprise. These are about science projects, these are about little space missions. They’re not about colonization. They’re not about being a real first step to habitating other planets. I mean, yes of course, if we end up habitating other planets hundreds or thousands of years from now, perhaps the things that are happening on Mars will be seen as one of the steps on the breadcrumb trail back. But these are not sexy missions. Like they’re interesting, they’re potentially beneficial, but they’re not maybe what we think about when we hear, some famous person says, “We’re going to be on Mars in 20 years,” or “We’re going to be on Mars in 50 years.” It’s a lot more humble than that.

So why on Earth, no pun intended, are we acting like going to Mars to have somebody go down to plant a flag or have some rovers running around with smarter human intelligence to get science data, which I’m sure is helpful and interesting, why that is like the giant visionary wonderful thing that we should be all hanging our hats on. I mean, we continue to have gross inequality in the world, we continue to have war and genocide and a whole litany of negatives on our own planet, a planet that is designed to continue our lives, to be friendly to humans. Mars isn’t friendly to humans. There isn’t another planet that we can identify and confidently say is friendly to humans. So to me the whole thing is rubbish. It’s total rubbish. Sure, there’s some scientific value to going to mars. Sure, if we have somebody land on another planet, like okay. That’s a meaningful milestone. It’s something interesting that probably should be happening in the world, but to act like that trip, that goal, is this great, giant, visionary, awesome thing, it just isn’t.

Science fiction writers have talked about going Mars and living on Mars for a long time. I mean, Elon Musk talking about it just because he can make a rocket that can go there. A lot of people have the technology now to do that. I just don’t get it Jon, I don’t. It feels like a con game that the media, the people like Buzz and Elon and all of these other people who would fashion themselves as space pioneers are acting like there’s this incredible, amazing future that they’re going to bring into being. And it just isn’t true.

So NASA just recently announced that they’re not sure if the software validation part is going to be ready for phase two in the timeline they thought it would be. Not to mention that the price tag as of 2018 is going to be pretty substantial. 23 billion dollars for this, as of fiscal 2018. So just to frame it in sort of the cost benefit, which I think you touched on the benefit pretty hard. But it also is not cheap and not easy to do. So from that perspective, it could be a little difficult to get there if there’s not the money to fund it. All that being said, I do think that were all sorts of amazing technologies that came out of the earlier space missions, which have been injected back into our economy which have provided benefits. Whether it’s scientific learning or the miniaturization or what have you of various technologies. So I think there’s a halo effect from this sort of giant challenge. But what I’m hearing from you is that maybe the challenge is not the giant challenge that we should be focusing on in the near term.

And then additionally, from the media, from folks like Elon Musk who are trumpeting this as this is the visionary thing, this is the big deal. Look, Elon Musk wants to be a great man, all right? He wants to be remembered. He’s highly ambitious. And so his bloating of these activities, frontiers, and pioneers, and acting like it’s the greatest adventure that humans will ever go on, that’s about his legacy. Buzz Aldrin’s interested in Mars. As the second man to the land on the moon and one of the primary benefactors for any future additional space travel that will happen, as an enhancement of his legacy, he too is grossly motivated. And I don’t mean grossly in a negative sense, but largely motivated to want the pursuit of space travel and the continued development of those frontiers. So you have people who are well-known, who I’m sure consciously, they aren’t seeing it as being super selfish and self-interested. But it is kind of selfish and self-interested. And the press sort of breathlessly goes with it. Because look, if you’re talking about space travel and colonizing Mars, people are going to click on that link. I’m going to click on that link, you’re going to click on that link, lots of people are going to click on that link.

So you have all of these parties who are shifting the focus from where it should be to where it shouldn’t be, and doing so in such a deceptive way. There’s interesting adventures on Mars, there’s a purpose. I would even not necessarily object to spending N billion dollars on doing some of that stuff. I don’t know the whole budget. I’d have to look before I could give a smart opinion. But I’m not in its face objecting to that. What I’m objecting to is, we’re treating it like it’s one thing when I think it’s very much a different one.