There is nothing we need on Mars other than science. It's not a market because there isn't money to be made outside of what is required to do whatever economically useless but scientifically valuable efforts we can convince people to fund.

We can't build an independent colony we can't live there any time soon. Arguably it may never make sense to live there.

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everfrustrated an hour ago | parent [-]

With that attitude mankind would still be living in caves. Why build a farm and stay in one place - we should follow the animals around.

	▲	Mordisquitos 36 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		1. Mankind never systematically lived in caves; that's just where remains and rock paintings are more likely to have survived. 2. Farming didn't evolve from a vision of "let's stay in one place, so let's find a way to do it"; it evolved from the gradual application of accumulated practical knowledge under real constraints until eventually it was possible to stay in one place. If Paleoelon had somehow convinced early humanity to abandon hunter-gathering and settle into a sedentary life because he had a vision for new markets around farming it would have led to the earliest famine.