Solving interplanetary space travel is the most expensive form of procrastination I have ever seen.
(Myself I think we'll go when it's easy. The best way to make it easy is to work on relevant technology like nuclear fusion, automated manufacturing, CRISPR, and so on.)
There would have been indications in wave pattern. And they knew how to read these, as well as meteorological hints and knowledge of tides.
Nevertheless, in the context of this discussion, landing up on an inhabited island thousands of kilometres from here is a huge shot in the dark, and most hopeful colonists would have missed.
But on Mars, you don't have proper air and you don't have wild life for food. And you cannot easily leave for other better places.
Good point. It would make sense to send robots in advance to manufacture huge stockpiles of air and food. Which is of course beyond present technology.
Once the location is established, regular trade becomes much more feasible.
With enough money you could set up 1000s of semi-autonomous robots to mine, mill, farm, .. and make more robots to help.
They’ll have the same or worse technology we already have on earth. They’ll have far fewer people and far less access to things to solve problems they didn’t plan for. But nah they’ll innovate and make great innovations, more than could ever be done here. I don’t wish to be rude but I honestly cannot understand for the life of me the rationale of this argument.