America went to the moon, because if they didn't then the Soviet would be there first. That's the real reason, and that explains why nobody ever went back since. (Why bother, when you are not number one? It's hard to justify the bills when you show it to people.)

I believe eventually we will be on the moon again, and on Mars, but it will require a lot more technical progress before the cost-benefit analysis makes sense. Or maybe all we need is a second cold war, with murderous dictators propped up around the world, CIA toppling governments, proxy wars killing millions, that kind of thing. Choose your pick.

Why do you think if human finally settle on Mars, there won't be any war on Mars? Are they not human anymore when they settle on Mars?

Umm, I think you misunderstood. I didn't say going to Mars would end wars, I was speculating on what conditions should be met on Earth, before someone lands on Mars.

We really wanted to actually visit other stars. Fusion, asteroid mining, and zero g manufacturing were all major components of that. Planting a flag on Mars just isn’t.

Figuring out how to live on Mars mostly involves solving Mars specific problems. It’s close enough to the sun you can just use solar panels, enough gravity to avoid most zero g problems, there’s an actual atmosphere to extract oxygen and carbon from, minimal need for deltaV, etc etc.