THW: take a one-way trip to Mars

Humanity will be the cause of its own demise. Our need for survival is instinctive, however, all of humankind has brought its downfall upon itself and the idea of relocating our population to another planet is contradictory of the consequences we should face for our destructive behaviour towards both ourselves and our Earth. I will address your case in the third round; here I will be presenting the Opposition case. First we must consider the waste of capital that arises as an implication of sending such a large group to Mars. The cost of space travel, of course, will increase exponentially as we continue to send more individuals to Mars in hopes of establishing a civilization. When we have significant and expensive issues to be resolved here on Earth, including the threatening and terminal illnesses you brought up in your argument. The capital granted to a mission to Mars would be far better invested in other endeavours, particularly in times of international economic downfall. Along with financial deficit comes political turmoil, and the political and international disruption is an important factor in the prohibition of a trip to Mars. Much of the history of the Americas, as well as regions of Asia and Africa, is marked with political conflict between various European groups in disputes over territory. In our modern world, the vast number of sovereign and thriving states would guarantee massive conflict in ownership of land on Mars. Secondly, let's look at the insufficient presence of necessary resources on Mars. Before we can even begin to colonize another planet and relocate human society, we need to ensure survival. This means easy access to resources such as water, food, and oxygen. We can go through these three basic needs individually. First, water - while you did mention we have discovered water on Mars, there is not nearly enough to sustain a large population of humans. The transport of enormous volumes of water from our planet to the next would be tedious, inefficient, and a waste of money yet again. You've also overlooked the task of water filtration, for which there are many delegates on Earth. Regardless of whether we extract water from Mars or bring it from Earth, the labour and capital required for filtration is excessive. Second, food - similarly to water, we have two options in regards to food: either transport it from Earth or grow it on Mars. The former poses the same problems as it does with water, and the latter requires even more resources. If we attempt to grow our own food on Mars, we would be limited to a heavily carnivorous diet (Mars is inhabitable for a lot of plant life) and thus face the task of having to house livestock. Third, let's look at oxygen - the composition of Mars' atmosphere includes only 0.13% oxygen, in contrast to Earth's 30% oxygen. While the volume of oxygen is reasonable for a group of 40 humans, the work required to harness the oxygen and physically breathe invites a dangerous situation wherein the humans sent are subject to suffocating. The need for these three resources, among others, make the sustenance of human life on Mars nearly impossible. The final opposition contention is the fact that the discovery and exploration of outer space (i.e. other planets) is relatively unnecessary. In the realm of scientific research, we have more pressing problems here on Earth. If, as a society, we have an interest in learning about space, we have probes and other technology capable of exploring our solar system - in fact, sending out humans is more inefficient. Looking practically and objectively at the situation, we have no real need to explore any farther than our own planet and attempts to do so are driven by curiosity alone. Modern scientific advancements, including intense research and the development of new technologies, need to be put towards other, more applicable branches of science, including the field of medicine. The colonization of Mars seems like a good idea in theory, but in reality is an action driven by humankind's sense of entitlement. An attempt to send a large population to Mars would result in financial detriment, a lack of resources, and scientific effort being applied in the wrong area, and for these reasons, the motion must fall.