The technology that would be created to explore Mars will probably have a great impact on human living in ways that can't be seen now. If we try to get to Mars and transform it into a habitable planet that would be a much better idea than just exploring.

We should certainly go. Relative to how much the federal government spends, going to Mars would be nothing.

I'd say it is worthwhile to explore any planet that we have the capability of exploring. I hear they are going to explore Uranus next...

I don't need to reiterate the same things that everyone else is saying, but I thought I'd chime in with this:

Learning more about Mars, or any other planet, also helps us learn more about planets in general; the knowledge gained can definitely be useful for better understanding earth phenomena.

Mars and venus both share some strong similarities with earth, albeit different ones. So long as both planets prove to be devoid of life as all current evidence suggests, there is even the potential for using these planets as 'sandboxes.' Consider, say, developing a fusion reactor to replace the current nuclear fission reactors- we could, with little difficulty (albeit not insignificant expense) stand these reactors up for a trial run on Mars, and have no fear of contaminating the earth in the event of failure.

There are very real benefits, and even further potential benefits to exploring other planets.

And, most of all, studying Mars does not preclude studying earth- it's not like every single scientist on the planet is going to pick up and go to Mars; it's always been a very small, exclusive group that undertakes such things. I don't believe that 'focus on earth' is a good argument for abandoning the space program, because we can focus on earth AND explore Mars, and get a better understanding of Earth in the process than by studying earth alone.