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>Notice that once they reach the summit, they don't stay very long. They don't plan on building a home there and plant potatoes.

If it was allowed, someone would have tried.

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There are plenty of places on Earth that people explored, tried to colonize, and failed.

Australia for instance, is mostly empty for this very reason[1]. Why would mars be easier to colonize than Australia?

1. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3320021/Maps-just-Au...

Why does it being "easier" matter?

This is such a frail argument in my opinion. Have a look at Dubai for an example of what humanity is capable of when we put our effort into something. If we truly wanted to, we could colonize any area of the planet. We just have no real motive to do so. Colonizing Mars is just the next step for our species. It's going to force us to tackle some really, really big engineering and civil problems, but we're going to eventually get there because that's what we do. We explore and we create new civilizations. Always have, always will.

> Colonizing Mars is just the next step for our species.

Not quite. The next step is colonizing Earth. I agree we can do it if we really want to, and Dubai is a valid example. We may colonize mars in the future, but to me it doesn't make sense to try to do it now.

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