The US ought to establish an independently viable colony on Mars by 2070

As per rules, I shall be addressing my opponent's opening arguments in this round. I appologize ahead of time if I miss something as I'm going to try and consolidate the arguments my opponent has made. R1: Legal and PoliticsThe aspects of the legality of the space exploration and the colonization of Mars does not matter. The spects of the debate shall keep things in mind with respects to Utilitarianism and the aspect of Hedonism where we have to focus on the future of humanity. My opponent brings up in 5th Contention where he talks about problems here on Earth and their enviornmental issues. It is these reasons why humanity must go to space and the US is the global leader to begin this. The survival of humanity is significantly more important in this regards. My opoonent brings up how this would trigger rival states. This has more benefits than harms as it would begin a second space race, though this time it's to the Moon. Just like the previous space race, this one will increase tons of STEM jobs that the US is being starved of and the innovation and increase in technological gains would lead to innovation and the gradual reduction of costs as things would become a lot lower and things will become more effiecent. I do agree that American support is important and it has the support of the people. The poll showed that the American public believes that the US will land on Mars by 2033 (75%), and more than half of all Americans support such a project in a poll from 2013 [1]. The poll also reports that only 5% of Americans believe that we shouldn't go to Mars. (R5 is also included here) Opponent's 5th contention point B is irrelivant to this debate as it is similiar to a counterplan purposal and the aspect of why the Mars over the Moon will be addressed later. R2: Environmental and health issuesI do agree with my opponent that there are a lot of issues on Mars that will need to be addressed, but these are going to be addressed. There are several challenges, but a lot of these things are currently being tried and tested on Earth for future colonization and landing individuals on Mars. Like Mars 1 NASA will be doing similiar with their program in order to establish the colony on Mars. They will be training these individuals how to be able to run expiraments on Mars as well as deal with the environmental hazzards [2]. Individuals going to Mars are indeed equpied with the ability to be without other human connection and the ones for the Mars 1 mission set to create these types of bases to pave the way for the colony. The concept and the question for if an individual will be able to deal with the isolation will be irrelivant in this situation in setting up the colony. NASA is currently on track to reach and land on an astroid by 2025 and Mars by 2030 [3]. One important reason that the US should aim for the colinization of Mars over the Moon is that the Moon will be moving towards Venus and this will lead to the extinction of the human race if no other colonization occurs as the sun expands, life will become impossible on the Moon (at that point in time) and Mars will look like a more suitable candidate than the moon when it comes to the survival of the human race, which is what was referenced before in this debate. There are going to be challenges to going to Mars, but the US has the technology to currently deal with these obsticles and in order to establish the colony, these things will be dealt with. Mars may seem to be more dangerous and further away from Earth than the moon, but Mars has been declared to be a more suitable option as it has a more Earthlike atmosphere and environment. There are significant amounts of minerals that can be found on Mars which help with technological advancement such as the platinum brought up previously in my last round and it is these minerals and the ability to mine Mars which will help continue the survival of Martians. Satellites and other technology will also be deployed to Mars to ensure the safety of those on Mars and the communication between Mars and Earth. Immunity is indeed a challenge due to the bacteria growth in space, but much of the same vaccinations will be made available to these individuals in order to ensure surival and that these colonies do not circum to disease and fail due to these issues. I won't be addressing all of these issues my opponent has brought up as many of them are to be covered by default by any mission to Mars and this debate is about whether or not the USFG should colonize Mars, not necessarially how the USFG is going to do this. Space radiation is indeed an issue, which is why NASA is already starting to study it and develope the technology needed to combat it as they are studying the ISS [4]. They are also planning to launch a study in space in seeing how people can live in space for a year in the near future. R3: Environmental ConsiderationsMuch of the Martian landscape will likely be terraformed and bent to form whatever purpose that the individuals colonizing it at the time believe is fit. Humanity has done this since the beginning of their existance and chances are that it will likely occur again. Colonization may indeed potentially hinder the research efforts, or maybe it won't, who knows. Chances are they will still be able to do their research, only that their methods would have to adjust to deal with the surrounding colonization of Mars. People may not want to move, but this is something which will likely take place hundreds of years down the road where terraforming becomes more complete. Even so, chances are the US would likely use Eminent Domain to seize these houses if need be. The Kessler Syndrome is indeed something that can pose an issue, but science does have an answer for this as there have been tons of projects that have been purposed to deal with the issue. One of which is the EDDE system, which "catches" space debres and helps clean it up [5]. The system is not at large now, but if Mars colonization is initiated then this type of plan would likely be implamented. Sources1. (. http://www.exploremars.org...)2. (. https://www.mars-one.com...)3. (. https://www.nasa.gov...)4. (. https://www.nasa.gov...)5. (. https://www.space.com...)