O'Keefe's question
Let me preface this by saying that I really, really want to see people in space--including on Mars!
But...has anyone come up with a great answer to Sean O'Keefe's recent question about Mars, namely why should we go? If we set foot on Mars, then what? What does that do for us?
Does the science alone justify the cost (tallied not only in billions of dollars, but likely in a number of lives as well)?
When Mars no longer wears the enticing image it has now, and becomes a "been there, done that" place, will we turn our backs on it as we have done to the moon?