Making Humans an Interplanetary Species

I hope his ego will fit into that rig

Gone rape me a planet. Its my destiny and the very best my species can do.

Musk is just another dangerous confused idiot...

Or you can say, "Don't waste ma tax payer money on all that space man voodoo Martian crap! Ol' Donald's gonna set all you mother truckers straight, why I'm so mad, I'm mad as hell and I don't know why! My neighbor's mad and that makes me mad too, and I still don't know why! My brother died in a boating accident, he coulda swam with two hands and he wouldn't let go of that beer, and the then prop got 'im, damn it cut off his damn head an dammit, he saved that beer! We got that Schlitz can bronzed an mounted on his casket the way he woulda wanted god dammit an am so mad I cai'nt see straight now! God dammit!! Why do I need a background check to get me a gun an a pressure cooker?

Would it be like the summit of Everest?

Terraforming a planet is murder on a planetary scale.

For those of you that say Musk should focus on making life on earth more sustainable, he does that too.

He also started PayPal

Created a video game when he was 12

Founded Tesla Motors

Wants to build a hyperloop between LA and SF

Started the second largest solar company in the US

And a bunch of other stuff.

#1 I am not sure how PayPal makes life more sustainable on earth.
#2 The vast majority of Americans will never own a Tesla.

Is that a Belief of yours, that mars is lifeless? I think the assumption is arrogant and thoughtless, myself.

Maybe I worded that weird. I meant he does do a lot of research into sustainability, and also does that other sort of unrelated stuff.

The Great Mark Force opines.

Life is about more than shoveling sh#t here on Earth.

going to Mars is based on my scientific curiosity--to look for evidence that we are not alone in the universe as living creatures.

10b... that's just nuts.

From Wright Flyer to Boeing 787.
From ENIAC to Tianhe-2.

A critical read for all the nay-sayers here: Entering Space; Creating a Space-Faring Civilization.

... nothing compared to what would happen to humans exposed to new pathogens on another habitable planet.

There is utilitarian science (i.e. knowing conversion of methylmalonic acid to succinyl-CoA in the citric acid cycle is promoted by hydroxocobalamin - but not by methylcobalamin - and all of the relationships that particular phenomenon effects).

The problem with robotic probes is their strictly limited mobility

The cost of sending a team of 7 astronauts to the Martian surface has been estimated at $30 to $40 billion if done by the Government

To survive within humans (a more or less necessary requirement for a human pathogen) an organism pretty much has to evolve among humans - or at least among creatures with a similar biology.

Dangus Ditchweed votes Trump over the issue of space exploration???!!!

Research Associate at Stanford

Healyje's concern... microbial human ecology... thousands of others (experts) don't seem to be expressing it. How come? Didn't Kelly just spend more than a year in space? Nothing from the experts in the news in regard to microbic dangers, one way or another. How come? If ever this issue becomes significant I'm sure it would become widely discussed.

Any successful, sustained human presence in space requires a deeper understanding of how biological systems, such as single—celled organisms or our own immune system, respond to the space environment.

it is highly unlikely to encounter a human pathogen on an alien world

The point I take from Healyje is that the real culprit would most likely be the pathogens they take with them, in them. They will evolve and mutate - and there will not be the other earth-systems in place to otherwise keep them in check.

It would only take one key mutated symbiotic organism to kill the space prisoners.

Although your reasoning is decent, your model would require the pathogens to have an identical biochemical basis of life to our own; that is, D-carbohydrates and L-amino acids.

the entire biome of such a world would likely not have been worth the trip.

Again, how silly. As if that's the main reason, or ONLY reason, for such a project.

This is not an academic concern.

This was the result from Viking landers

Perchlorates are reactive chemicals first detected in arctic Martian soil by NASA's Phoenix lander that plopped down on Mars over five years ago in May 2008.

It is likely both of NASA's Viking Mars landers in 1976 measured signatures of perchlorates, in the form of chlorinated hydrocarbons. Other U.S. Mars robots — the Sojourner, Spirit and Opportunity — detected elemental chlorine. Moreover, orbital measurements taken by the Mars Odyssey spacecraft show that chlorine is globally distributed.

And more recently, NASA's Curiosity rover found perchlorates within Gale Crater, where it landed in August 2012.

That's what the Europeans said to the Americans.

Expansion into the outer Solar system

You are neglecting the 12 men who have walked on the Moon!

I just can't understand why are you so concerned about taking something that belongs to nobody.

All this reminds me of Nero's fiddling.

isn't this what bacteria does? it tries to expand to another host before it completely kills off its current host?

"Respect Life"
Biology is the study of life, and in spite of numerous claims of UFO sightings and alien abductions, the Earth is still the only known place in the universe where life exists. At this point scientists agree that finding life elsewhere is probable. The most likely scenario is that we will discover evidence for some form of unicellular, prokaryotic life on a moon of Jupiter or Saturn, or even on a meteorite that falls to earth. However, the chances of encountering other "intelligent" life are much, much less. Why do people automatically assume that UFOs are actually alien spacecraft visiting us from star systems many light years away from Earth? That's a pretty big leap, is it not?
"What is that thing?"
"I don't know, it must be from Alpha Centuari."
More likely it's from China, or our own top secret space program. There is a huge difference between some single-celled bacteria, and organisms intelligent enough to have mastered interstellar travel.
The Earth is special. Even if there is life elsewhere in the universe, which there probably is, the odds of a planet developing "intelligent" life must be incredibly, infinitesimally, small. Therefore, the Earth is special. The Earth is special because it has life, it has intelligent life, and we're not just talking about humans. The Earth and all the life on it is special, sacred even. Although we humans often like to pretend that we are somehow set apart from the Earth and all the rest of life on it, the truth is we are part if it. Not apart, but a part; a part of a larger living ecosystem. We totally depend on it. Totally.
Those who entertain the idea that humanity will be saved from extinction by colonizing the Moon, Mars or some other off-world alternate, are surely living in a science fiction fantasy (unless they know something I don't . . . ). We need to get it through our heads that we are, in fact, totally dependent on the Earth for our very survival, for the foreseeable future. Therefore, once again, the Earth and all the life on it is special, incredibly important; we can't live without it; it is sacred.
So, why is biology important? Because life is important. What other reason is required? We should do our best to learn as much as we can about life. We should do our best to protect life, and the conditions that promote life. This is why unnecessary killing is wrong. What other reason is needed? It should be obvious, by now, to any thinking person, that we have a duty to protect all life on this planet simply because this is the only place in the universe where we know that not only life exists, but intelligent life exists. No other reason is required. It makes perfect logical sense. This is my position: Respect Life!