Will we ever get to Mars in our life time?

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I think we will. By 2030, I think man willl reach Mars. Heck, majority of Americans believed that there were going to be a cure for cancers rather than a man walking on the moon. Look what happened.

Why are people so bothered about space travel and landing on planets like mars?
I agree though that eventually people will actually land on mars.

If everything goes well, a handful of people (I'll take bets on there being N men, where N is between two and five, and one woman) will get there, land somewhere uninteresting, hop out of their space capsule, walk around a bit, perhaps drive a couple of miles in a rover, take a few pictures, and leave. Then they'll fly back; by the time they reach Earth they'll have picked up a lot of radiation and muscle atrophy due to the journey. However, if previous unmanned attempts at reaching Mars are anything to go by, there's a high chance that they will die at some stage, probably just as they reach Mars orbit or attempt to land. Even though that's a fate that very many people would accept gladly - heck, many people would accept a one-way ticket to Mars gladly - loss of the Mars ship will likely set space exploration back decades.

To sum up, I think an attempt at reaching Mars is very likely, but that the success of that attempt is very uncertain, and that if the first try fails, we will not see another attempt in the near- or mid- future.

What is so important about actual people being on Mars? Let's be honest, unmanned vehicles are far better to use.

Quite.

Veeeee-eeee--eeery simply put, just my first thoughts, which can be subject to change:p :

I think it's all got to do with the feeling of unity, being invincible/powerful/the first.
I'd think it's a very rare thing for humans to land on another planet with their own two feet, so when one eventually does after a lot of hard work... I think it gives humans the feeling that they are invincible. Nothing will stop them. It's progress.

Seeing that it *is* a human and not, say, a dog landing on that planet... It makes other people relate to that, because they're the same species. Resulting into unity. I mean, I bet millions upon billions of people were all glued to the tv during the first moon landing.

Other than that, a robot/machine cannot tell about the emotional experiences of landing on said planet... and I think a lot of people are also interested in that e.g.: how it felt stepping on there (daunting, marvelous), what it's like being the first person (amazing, unbelievable), what it looked liked, (dreary, magical, etc.). I mean, sure you can get pictures/video's/data of it, but it's not the same as hearing it described in someone's own first hand experience words.


Though, I have no idea what that'd contribute to science, except from a psychological point of view, perhaps (brains....IN SPACE ^_-).

Why? It's just an old dusty giant rock. I don't want my tax money going to waste.

I'd imagine it would be around 2050. I'd say that most of us will be alive at that time.

It's f*****g awesome, that's what.

Seems as good a reason as Mallory's, and this is maybe infinitely more awesome than what he was doing.