You made a silly claim about convention attendence relating to public support for space spending. It only took one sentence to show how silly that conclusion was. "The US space program costs far less per person than the cost of attending the Mars Society"

You complained about bring money to the table as if that was the over riding basis for judgeing a goals worth, but ignore the fact that no other goal beyond LEO is attracting as much private money or attention as Mars. I notice you did not respond to "How many people are attending conferences dedicated solely to exploring asteroids? "

You claim Mars is overpriced yet ignore cost/return comparisons.

I don't think I avoided your points at all.

In your latest reply you seem very confused about goals for Mars. You don't seem to be able to separate near term goals from long term ones. Overlapping them can be contradictory, putting them in correct order is not.

Your NASA funding increase comments are ludicrous. Mars Exploration is fundable within the existing manned spaceflight budget.

I don't know who you consider mainstream space community, but here's a hint it's not the few hundred people in SFF. It is obvious based on member polls that one of the largest pluralities in the much larger NSS and the PS favors Mars exploration. It's colonization is favored by the largest section of NSS members.

I think you need to get your facts in a little better order before you throw stones at the Mars Society. It has plenty of ripe targets, but they seem to be obscured by the errors you surround yourself with.

Regards,
Mark