Should we colonize Mars or fix Earth first?

Welcome to the debate arena! Today's topic: "Should we colonize Mars or fix Earth first?". Your opponent's style: Richard Feynman

Soil surveys are a waste of resources in the age of remote sensing

You're backwards on this one. Remote sensing gives you pretty pictures from 400 miles up, but it can't tell you what's actually in the soil—the microbes, the chemistry, the structure that determines if a plant lives or dies. A satellite can't measure soil pH or nutrient content or compaction. Farmers betting their harvest on spectral data alone are flying blind. Ground-truthing isn't redundant, it's essential. Remote sensing without soil surveys is like reading an X-ray without examining the patient. You need both. One tells you what's there, the other tells you *why it matters*. Which approach are you actually claiming replaces real soil science?