I think it would sound like the intro audio to Alien

I'm sure they would have dwarfed what I had.

You have too low an opinion of yourself.

Everything I thought of was too much of a reach

*trying to think of a good short joke that would apply here*

Because we don't have a human rated craft that can support people all the way there and back yet.

That's not the way comets work. That's not the way they work at all.

Glow in the dark stars on the ceiling is a must. Even better if it corresponds with a skymap.

And with Nelson now telling Congress they are in a space race with China, we'll probably start seeing more money directed at LEO and Lunar missions.

At some point technology is going to have to reach the point of addressing the weakest link or it will never happen. That weakest link is the human lifespan and the inability to put humans in "cold storage." If we're ever able to lengthen one while doing the other, and achieve even half the speed of light, then the nearby stars become within our reach.

Considering the vast distances involved, I think the greatest likelyhood is eventually intercepting a signal from some long dead civilization

Fortunately, nobody that matters listens to those people.

Mars. Whatever entity ends up terraforming Mars isn't going to have to deal with a hundred countries refusing to fall in line or actively refusing to make the sacrifices necessary. Unlike Mars, here on Earth there will be forces actively sabotaging the effort every step of the way.

The ancient Greeks figured out the Earth was a sphere, and might have known the same about the moon.

Someday a Martian archeologist is going to make a nice find for his museum

I think there is a lot of testing (especially on life support) to be done between now and then. So I'm thinking more mid-2030s

The problem is unless we can get a space station that can simulate Martian gravity, there is simply no data to back up any position on the topic. We do a lot of zero-G research, but we need a station that will allow us to simulate different gravities so we can do research in those as well

Shorter case; "The Senators Boeing and Northrup own told us to do it this way or else."