...and stay there! So says Buzz Aldrin

"...send people there permanently," said Aldrin. "If we are not willing to do that, then I don't think we should just go once and have the expense of doing that and then stop."

He asked: "If we are going to put a few people down there and ensure their appropriate safety, would you then go through all that trouble and then bring them back immediately, after a year, a year and a half?"

Aldrin points out that there is water on Mars and that conditions are generally more Earthlike there than just about anyplace else. If we're going to set up a permanent inhabited outpost anywhere in the solar system, Mars definitely presents some advantages.

I think there's something to be said for this argument. We've already had our Christopher Columbus voyages via Apollo. Maybe now it's time to start moving into the Plymouth Rock or Jamestown mode. This is one reason that it's probably a good thing that we haven't discovered life on Mars. If there is even bacteria there, some would argue that we have no right to set up permanent residence.

Let the settlers discover Martian bacteria, and find a way to peacefully coexist (as we do with a significant amount of the stuff on this planet.)