I'm not opposed to SpaceX and projects to put people on Mars (and I want them to succeed), but I tend to agree with Martin Rees generally about the idea that this might be the route to human survival in the long term. Dedicating that much effort, energy and resources to solving the problems here on Earth is the way to secure that. The idea that humans can transcend the planet we evolved to live on is all very well, but it's a very long way off. As the cliche goes, there is no Planet B, and even a successful SpaceX project doesn't change that.
Yes, the notion that we can all move to Mars is absurd. It would be so much easier to move to Antarctica.
As for the cost of space, the global space economy (which includes a lot of services and ground equipment) is about $500B, that is 0.5% of Global GDP, and of course every penny is spent here on Earth, mostly on the salaries of skilled workers, developing sophisticated technologies. Musk himself has said that spending 1% of world GDP on space is probably sufficient (but I can't find the quote now), leaving plenty of money to fix the Earth. Perhaps we could carve a little out of the $3T of world military spending to help repair the environment.
People often criticise Musk for not spending his money on alleviating poverty on Earth, which I suppose would require him to sell all his Tesla and SpaceX shares.
But I have always found it surprising that nobody asks the same of the similarly wealthy Bernard Arnault, boss of LVMH, who sells $70B of frocks, bags and booze annually.
It seems to me that the public gives a free pass to generic billionaires and multibillionaires like Arnault, who have made their money doing nothing particularly innovative, constructive or interesting. As long as these people stick to their yachts and planes, and don't make a splash, nobody asks anything of them. The billionaire class is remarkably drab: they have little desire or interest in changing/improving the world, and are mostly happy to coast along rubbing shoulders at elite venues, while leaving their tax lawyers and political lobbyists to protect their interests.
Bezos and Musk are abrasive and arrogant men, who have big ideas about themselves and about space. But at least they have some ideas more interesting than buying the biggest yacht. We won't be settling Mars any time soon, but I do foresee a step change in science/exploration, driven by dramatically lower launch costs, which, because mass will no longer be such a concern, will permit the building of big, robust, cheap and capable crewed and robot spacecraft. Later - perhaps in 20 years' time - asteroid mining (and defence) could gain some momentum. Then for the next couple of centuries spreading across the Solar System, and then, well, surely beltalowdas will crack warp drive at some point ?
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