This article is deeply, deeply stupid. But it’s “smart people” stupid so it will snooker more than a few.
Explaining why — dang, I got better things to do, and it would take also thousands of words. But mainly I hate it because it’s loser thinking. In short, we could have the tech if we wanted it, and robots are no replacement for human exploration. Also, the idea that we’d send humans to Mars and restrict them from going outside when they got there is fucking ludicrous.
Smart people are the best in the world at having deep and meaningful-seeming justifications for their already-decided-upon positions.
We should build a permanent base on the Moon, then should be pushing for Mars and then Europa or Ganymede.