Is Mars too far for a practicable human base this century....?

Speaking of practicality: what exactly would be the point of a "human base" up in outer space? The ISS is useless enough, so what would be the point of having fragile humans with all their cumbersome life support systems holed up on another planet? What would it actually DO for you? What would it DO for me? What use would it be for anyone?

Funny but once you puff away the clouds of hype that surround the notion of humans on Mars, there is no substance. Nobody discusses what we do with it, what use it would be, and how the colossal cost would be justified. All you hear is airy fairy ways to go about it and the corny old cliche: "oh Mars is the stepping tone to the next planet". Lol, it begins to look like a cosmic Ponzi scheme. Fund up a Mars base, then based on the sheer hype, seek funding to the next planet, then more hype, and fund to the next. At what point does the public realise the pointlessness of it all? 

If we truly want to explore the planets, moons, asteroids and comets in the solar system, the tried and proven way to do it is robotically. It costs less than one percent of cumbersome and troublesome manned missions, is far more reliable, and just as effective if not more so.

A one way trip could be as short as 6 months

Bigger problems are the lack of sufficient gravity, lack of breathable athmosphere, and lack of magnetic field to protect from all kinds of radiation

I think it has possibilities, if someone could come up with the Money

Now Yahoo Answers is ending, I would go myself

Because there is Bugger all else down here

1) Is Mars too far for a practicable human base this century....?

No...not if a nation

or a consortium of nations

has the will and finances to accomplish it.

A permanent base is certainly possible.

It would be VERY EXPENSIVE to establish.

It might NOT be outrageously expensive to maintain, especially if something like the Red Dragon becomes a "standard transport vehicle" (for both humans and supplies) to and from Mars.

Once established

the base ought to have an "escape / return to Earth" vehicle always "ready" in case of emergency.

- TWO such vehicles, eventually

We could ship supplies to Mars on automated transports

and

we could replace the crew of the base at regular intervals.

(I.e. much as we do now with the ISS, except the intervals would be more like 18 months.)

2) Would the Moon (which has some gravity) or a large space station between Earth and Moon or in lunar orbit be a better 1st step for the 21st century?

It would certainly be EASIER

and CHEAPER

and

thus

MORE ACHIEVABLE.

One could establish "transfer stations" (space stations) orbiting both Earth and the Moon

and so

- standardized transport between Earth and Earth-transfer-station

- standardized transport (different type of vehicle) running between Earth-transfer-station and Moon-transfer-station

- standardized transport (different type of vehicle) between Moon-transfer-station and Moon

Basic reliability testing could be done at the transfer stations to make sure that the vehicles were still in good operating condition. Vehicles could be refueled at the transfer stations.

Note that you would need not only people transport, but also allow for supplies transport and safe fuel transport, for this system to be worth the expense. It would also be nice if the system supported heavy equipment transport (so that you could get large items to the Moon without having to use a direct Earth-to-Moon system).

3) Earth spacecraft could then refuel and provision there for the long haul all the way to Mars. Earth base Mars being for the 22nd century?

The (potential) problem with a space-based Mars flight is that it's not particularly easy to work on (evaluate, transfer supplies, etc.) spacecraft in space. I mean: you'd STILL have to get the Earth-to-Mars spacecraft in orbit...and the fuel... and the people...and the supplies...and load all of those things ON the spacecraft, and generally that's going to be easier to do ***from the ground*** than it is from space. (I.e. easier to put all of those things in your Mars-bound spacecraft on Earth than it would be to transfer all of those things to your Mars-bound spacecraft in space).

But if you have ***reusable craft*** running a ***regular route*** and requiring minimal maintenance

- or, if the craft is small enough, ***a repair bay that can be "aired up" so that the craft can be serviced in space***

then you have an economical solution

because the operating costs will be RELATIVELY small

compared to a from-Earth-ground-to-destination-and-back-all-in-one-package solution.

NO not too far BUT it would have to be totally and completely self sustaining, food, air, water heat, not to mention a protective sustainable dome of some sort to protect all of it from a multitude of dangers not just cosmic rays and THEN there is the law of 3 MINIMUM plus backups replacements for everything because at some point it will FAIL and without it you die as well as everything else and no exceptions because it is a dangerous and unforgiving place if you make any kind of mistake to begin with as that is the ENVIRONMENT of not only MARS but of space itself and the best practice field is the moon...

N.Shadows