>>213760560
>Let's fix our planet first
Our problems are space and resource scarcity.
We don't need a colony on mars, there's no good reason to get stuck in another gravity well once you get out.
Exploiting orbital resources lets you bootstrap heavy industry and mining off world.
You can construct large orbital greenhouses that can grow super-fruits in isolated environments under low gravity so you can grow super sized produce that doesn't have to worry about being too big to be supported by the plant.
Now you've got a population on earth who have most of their agriculture and heavy industry subsidized off world.
As the process begins to boot strap you'll start needing more and more people to help the population grow before it can hit that tipping point where it can grow itself.
Getting shit to earth is as easy as kicking it down the gravity well at the right time, and resources are so abundant there wouldn't be much reason to try and starve anyone out because you couldn't.
Now you have solves resource scarcity and population density. You can now focus on generations of humanity who can see the reclaiming and sheparding the natural beauty of earth which would become the new scarcity.
One of the only good reasons to try and colonize mars, is that it has a low enough gravity that you could build a space elevator out of conventional materials we have today. If you want to build one on earth you need mass produced carbon nano-tubes, and if you can figure out how to industrially produce carbon sheets and tubes you're the next Edison.
