No Stupid Questions

War.

Plenty of private companies who wanna do that, eventually use space invasion to cover for paying taxes, I suspect for money laundry as well.

When governments do it, it's because of the 'race' to show who's stronger.

We will go there, accidentally bring seeds and bugs and rats and stuff. Then when the Mars humans eventually die out, the cockroaches will survive and evolve into giant intelligent insect aliens who will invade Earth in 1 million years and anally probe the earthlings.

This is the ideal outcome.

Having a permanent human presence on other worlds is the whole idea. If you don't think that's a good reason, I can't help you.

Tritium mining. Its energy density makes it cost-effective.

I don't think anyone serious (not techbro grifters) actually suggests long-term human presence on Moon and Mars

They're planning everything from mining to the rapture

They're also idiots that don't understand basic physics

Its the same mental deficiency of people going on about asteroid mining. Yeah, sure, lots of minerals in those asteroids but until you find a safe, cheap, and reliable way to shift those asteroids into earth's orbit it's literally the same as those guys jerking off over AI porn: vapid and empty.

I'm not saying that its impossible, I know that one day we'll get there. I also know that "one day" is at the very least 20 years in the future, still, just to get a simple base. Getting a production base that pulls out minerals, with a reliable way to move said minerals to earth is more likely some 50 years away

I know, musk says we can do all that today, bit musk hasn't been able to speak a single truth in 2-3 decades at least. He's full of shit and constantly makes stupid lying claims about mars bases. His starship rockets have spent billions of US tax payer money and still haven't been able to clear the first easy 1% of the work; getting in yo a stable earth orbit. They managed to roast a banana over the Indian ocean, and to obliterate a launch pad. I suppose those are impressive feats perhaps, but not on the way to the moon, or worse, mars.

Seriously, humanity is at best 1% on the way to a mars base. There are so many known issues that we don't have solutions for, and there are even more unknown issues that also still need solutions. Yet the moon and mars bro's can stop talking about how next year bro, next year will be the year bro, musk promised it bro, that is as good as any truth bro....

If their resources cost more to harvest than what it costs to send a rocket back out, it's a dud. Sending humans, lifeforms evolved for life on Earth, is stupid beyond belief.

You send life engineered to what best fits the environment, and if your society can't cope with that fact because it is too species-centric, you get nothing. Never mind what actual interstellar travel requires, which is coping with timescales and hibernation states completely alien to us. Because a lot of what space requires involves a lot of what we can't cope with, it is far more likely that it will belong to our successors.

What is the motivation behind the money? Why are they really doing this?

We want to colonize Mars and maybe the Moon, not because it is easy, but because we have a mistaken belief that it is easy!

Asking "Cui bono?" will get you most of the way to an understanding of what's going on... but sometimes there is no benefit, and rich powerful people are just acting on mistaken assumptions. Like, the assumption that a livable Mars (or any other body in the solar system) will take anything less then slow grueling highly sophisticated intricately organized staggeringly terribly carefully coordinated work for like 12 human generations.

Consequence-free slavery

Necessary? No.

I think the immediate concerns are oxygen, radiation and space debris impacts