Moon, Mars and beyond are no different from the frontiers of the past
Except in the past they didn't have to carry their own atmosphere

But in the past they did have to build their own roads, and they didn't
have power tools. We have more technology now, so we can accomplish
more kinds of exploration. It's no different.

A very large portion of the early conquering of our noble terrestrial world,
was to pad the bank account of the conqueror with pillaged gold...

.... and a large portion of our present exploration is to establish a
presence before others do, and prevent us from ever going there. It's
another form of padding the bank account, where power is currency, and
the outlook is longer term.

what we might practically benefit/gain
from the endeavor vs. pure political bull**** and waste.

"political bull****" is just politics you don't agree with, no?

Jose
--
Quantum Mechanics is like this: God =does= play dice with the universe,
except there's no God, and there's no dice. And maybe there's no universe.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.