The JPL robotic missions to just about everywhere ...

The JPL robotic missions to just about everywhere in our solar system, and deep space, have gathered massive amounts of data relevant to astrophysics and cosmology. These are subjects I write about and rely on data being published by JPL. Future robotic missions are critical to manned missions later on. Within the next 30 years, Americans will be living and working on Mars thanks to JPL. Now, as a child in the 1960's, in Deer Park, NY, I would get on my roof with my Edmund Scientific 900x refractor and occasionally point it at Mars. One evening, I thought my telescope had malfunctioned since Mars appeared to be nothing but a rusty blur. Later, I learned that I had witnessed a Martian dust storm that COVERED THE ENTIRE PLANET. Generally speaking, with today's technology no human or human habitat could possibly survive those dust laden high velocity winds. In a nutshell, Mars is deadly cold and its regolith is deadly toxic due to perchlorates and is completely and utterly averse to human occupation. Mars will chew you up and spit you out dead if you're unprepared for the worst. Don't be fooled by those benign surface images that mimic the Sonoran Desert. Colonizing our Moon should be the number one priority since it's alot closer, has no atmosphere, and 12 people have already been there enjoying the 1/6 gravity. As a species, we better have a really good reason to colonize Mars, other than the fact that it is "there" like Mt. Everest. Atmospherically it is 96 percent carbon dioxide with a smattering of carbon monoxide and argon and prone to wild dust storms that, as I pointed out, would kill any humans with the current technology we would bring with us. At some point in the near future someone has to spell out to the American public the exact reason we are fixated on inhabiting Mars. To me, our Moon is a far better world to inhabit from an economic/ strategic/ recreational perspective especially since China is now currently sending robots to the far side. Just think, it is absolutely plausible to do a three week or one month getaway to the Moon with current American technology. Investment money from the private sector, specifically from Elon Musk, could make this a profitable venture. It could be advertised as the greatest getaway package EVER!