I am certain you are correct that anyone who posts on the internet saying they'd personally like to live on Mars probably hasn't given it as much consideration as they would if they were actually given the opportunity. Posting on the internet about moving to Mars is a much smaller commitment than moving to Mars.
Are you sure you'd still feel that once you're actually there? What if many people might believe what you say, but then quickly change their minds as soon as they find out how difficult and uncomfortable it is to live on Mars?
I think most people who want to live off-planet have a very romanticised notion of what that entails. Mars isn't going to be terraformed within our lifetimes, even if it was possible. Living on Mars = living permanently in a tunnel. And if you don't get along with the small community you'll be living with, you'll be screwed. And if you don't like living a fairly regimented lifestyle, you'll be screwed as well; there'll be no equivalent of "let's see what cafes are down this alleyway!".
I think far more people actually want a 'holiday' off-planet, than actually live off-planet.
Wanting to visit Mars is one thing, wanting to live on Mars is quite another.
Mars has nothing to offer humanity as a place to live - you would be better off living on a ship on the ocean if you truly want to get away from people - but it would be nice to check it off our collective bucket list.
The whole concept here is that we have hundreds of thousands of people who desperately want to live on Mars. You don't seem to be getting that in this comment thread. YES, we know it's cheaper to live on Earth.
We.
Don't.
Care.
We want to live on Mars. We will give anything to go live on Mars. It'll cost more. Yes. It'll be tougher. Yes.
Mars is like Antarctica or Sahara, but much worse, why would people want to live their lives there? I can understand scientists or perhaps adventurers living there for a 2 year shift. But why would anyone want to spend time there if it's a worse place to live than Earth in almost every regard?
By the way, I'm a big SpaceX fan and I hope there will be an outpost on Mars, but a self-sustaining city is just unrealistic, sadly.
What percentage of your friends want to live on Mars? If it's more than a ten of one percent then that sounds like there are plenty of people who want to live there.
I don't understand why some people say they want to live on Mars. They'd be confined in small metal boxes, surrounded by things that would kill them in a moment. The cost of everything would be enormous, if it was available at all.
If you want that experience, you can get it now on Earth in places we call "prisons".
Uh, no, it's not. There are a great number of people who say they would be willing to live on mars under those conditions basically just for the novelty of it. There are a great number of challenges with colonizing mars. Getting a small group of competent people is not one of them.
That explains why humans want to live on Mars, certainly. But "we really want to" is not, on its own, a compelling reason to spend billions of dollars.
Saying it that way makes it sound like a new retirement community. Why not say he would like to live on Mars? Maybe because it's a dead planet and not very livable.
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