Even if this DOES happen by 2030....

It's not going to happen by 2030 or any time close to that. We have been launching rockets for almost 100 years now, and are still stuck with that technology. Under the current circumstances, it still takes over a year to reach Mars, and until they come up with a new propulsion system, it's going to be status quo.

It's going to be another hundred years until they can shorten the trip to a few weeks, and until then Mars isn't feasible.......If it ever will be.

It won't happen by 2030. Maybe by 2070.






Schrodinger's cat walks into a bar and doesn't.

IMO it will happen pretty quickly if/when technology is invented that enables faster-than-light travel. The problem is, that kind of technology could happen a 100 years from now, or a 1000 years from now, or never. Without that technology, interstellar travel is pretty much a non-starter.

We just need to be visited by Vulcans.

This series has the IMSF Mars Expedition being financed by international investors - not a govt. run project.

If competing commercial or private-financed projects go to Mars to boost their egos or to have robot races or whatever, Mars could end up being a playground for the ultra-rich.

Sure, scientists would scream OUTRAGE, but they'd sign on just for the opportunity to do some kind of testing.

I think most people on Earth would not care if Mars was used as some kind of Jockey Club. If greed is what gets us there, is that all bad? There are many other planets and moons "close by" for scientist to still get their jollies.

The problem with your aphorisms is that, a couple centuries from now, they might turn out having been the 21st century equivalent of "If man was meant to fly God would have given him wings" of the entire pre-flight era. Never say never. You never know what kind of scientific breakthroughs will be achieved in the not very distant future.

Perhaps a feasible Alcubierre drive (a "warp drive" described scientifically, along with the relevant math - see the link for more) will be possible to be constructed. An Alcubierre drive has exotic requirements such as negative mass and negative energy, which are still rather speculative, of course (although the "Cassimir vacuum" is considered as a form of negative energy).

It is based on some solutions of general relativity, but it is thought that quantum mechanics would also need to "play along". So, a complete rigorous theory of quantum gravity (a "theory of everything"), if and when it is formulated, would either rule it out or confirm that it is possible.

And that is just one example. Who knows, perhaps we discover or learn how to create stable wormholes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcubierre_drive

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