One question I have always asked regarding Mars Direct is: "If you go through all that trouble to get there, why come back?"

Why not plan from the start to establish a permanent presence on Mars? And stay there? Do we not run the risk of repeating the "flags and footprints" experience of Apollo by bringing the astronauts back as soon as they get there, and then never returning?

-- James (james@NOSPAM.lamarssociety.org), July 16, 2001