Whoever you are, I can summarise your life in 3 words. Work. Play. Die. You may strut around the college ball like a big shot, but beyond this bubble you’re a nothing. And in the context of the universe, you needn’t bother existing. You and your Cambridge degree can’t change anything. But surely humanity as a whole has an aim? Is there a use for our accumulated knowledge? Universal health-care, free movement of people and gross domestic product won’t matter a jot at the time of the apocalypse.

Perhaps our fundamental aim, then, should be our most primal: survival. Settling other worlds is the ultimate means to achieve this, and Mars, with its similar gravity and comparatively hospitable conditions, is the first step. Obviously.

We won’t be shipping people to Mars to preserve our kind though. The settlers of the New World had no illusions of a grand purpose, they were escaping religious persecution. The first to go West across America did it to stake their claim on land. The Europeans in Australia were exiles. Humanity shares no overarching vision and we don’t care for each other very much - not as individuals; not as members of the human race.

No, we will go to Mars for its resources. Science thought it ludicrous to drill oil from the sea bed, right up until the point it became affordable. So when we can mine rare metals on Mars, we will. And without the vexations of wildlife or an indigenous population our plans would not be frustrated. Indeed, to the question: Is there life on Mars? We may offer a stout and jubilant reply: Nope.
It takes 9 months to travel to Mars with current technology. Limited by the speed of light a message to Earth would take up to 20 minutes at times, any reply 40. Those transferring to Mars would be there to stay.

These colonies will of course be dependent on cargo drops from Earth, but not as a form of welfare or relief – rather, to make up the balance of trade. Tough and dangerous work will be well rewarded. Settlers emigrating to Martian outposts will form their own societies. Children born on Mars would have a life, a job, and no reason to return to Earth. Our descendants will live naturally on an engineered planet. Even biologically we are prepared, given that our body clock is eerily in sync with the Martian day that lasts just 40 minutes longer than ours.

Our nature is to consume and to compete and we will not stop at Mars. Mankind will survive, whether we are able to work together or not, whether we like each other or not. It may be a slow process, but we have all the time in the universe.