> He believes Mars and Moon missions would be a great waste of money.

If they fail to inspire people to continue exploring, yes. I would prefer Moon missions because they'd be cheaper and, as far as inspiration goes, they'd achieve the same results. How many brilliant people have chosen to dedicate their talents to building web technologies because space is no longer cool?

Also, being able to build self sustaining off world colonies may prove handy if we end up unable to stop climate change...