Quote Originally Posted by rotorgun
Just let one of our probes discover something really valuable in large enough quantites to justify the expense, and it'll be "Katie, bar the door" in the efforts made to get there first. Imagine the gold rush of 1890. There were plenty of folks willing to risk life and limb to attain the "mother lode" and thereby gain a lifetime of wealth. As for those who would want to live on Mars, I agree that it is beyond the scope of most people today, but it is seriously being considered by some pretty smart folks among the worlds space exploration community.

Heck, I might even want to move there if I wasn't so old and tied down with the cares of my life. At least I would get a little peace and quiet for a change.
But whatever they find ahs to worth transporting too, gold is nice stuff, but do we really need more of it ? And is it worth the cost of mining and transporting (which would be huge) ?

Maybe rich uranium could be worth the effort, but we have enough of that here on earth for a few hundred years, and I doubt the populace would be in favour of making our planet just a little more radioactive.