re: Mars - Misconceptions
Hmmm, I'm not aware of any place humans have wanted to colonize before anybody had stepped on it.
There will be a first time but the circumstances might be very different from those we can imagine today.
Right after the historic flight of Apollo 11, Mariner 6 took pictures of Mars when it flew by the planet.
NASA had hoped to take advantage of the Apollo epic momentum to sell Mars, but instead, Mars only had this to offer: craters, craters, craters. So moonlike a landscape, the event went largely unnoticed.
Had the camera been aimed towards the northern hemisphere, close by, it could have been different.
Raoul
(I'm member of the NSS and MS but that doesn't mean I share everything they say)