We still have no idea how to get humans to Mars alive and in good health, let alone how to get them back.
And, sorry, the moon isn't a "gateway" to anywhere, nor are there any "resources" there that make it worth the trip. But who knows, maybe some tireless lunar rover will find alien technology beneath some rock...
If we are truly interested in exploring the solar system it's best to leave the fragile humans at home.
Interstellar travel simply can't exist in this universe. This alone adequately explains the Fermi Paradox.
I rather like Jason Pargin’s take on all of it:
Experts can correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems like if you had two agencies with infinite budgets, one dedicated to developing interstellar space travel and the other dedicated to giving a young child all of the magical abilities of Harry Potter, the latter would get to the finish line first. Both would be tasked with bending the laws of physics in equally unlikely ways, but the second one wouldn’t have to also keep dozens of humans alive indefinitely in a frozen radioactive vacuum that is relentlessly trying to murder them every single second of the day.
--more--
https://jasonpargin.substack.com/p/interstellar-space-travel-will-neverPessimistic arguments about space travel can't be compared to 19th century arguments that man would never fly, arguments that were disproved when we progressed from the early experiments of the Wright Brothers and others at the beginning of the 20th century to supersonic aircraft in about fifty years.
More than fifty years after the Apollo Program there have been incredible advances in materials science, engineering, and computers but landing people on the moon is still difficult. That's not because we haven't thrown enough money at the problem, it's because we are actually approaching the limits of what is possible in this universe.
= new reply since forum marked as read