Centuries ago the scientific community thought the world was flat.

I still don't understand why people are so nonchalant about the discovery of life on Mars, even if they are one-cell microscopic organisms. Finding life in an environment such as the one on Mars could tell alot of how life originated on Earth. And it could give us information on how life could go on in the harshest conditions, whether it's in applications in medicine or possible impacts in genetics. I guess thinking about the origins of life is yesterday's concerns (then why so many religions?).

It's because popular media made people expect superhero green aliens in flying man-eating saucers with "lasers" . Anything else is boring.

Of course those was big. The fact that interstellar travel is so much bigger only begins to tell you how far fetched it is. To prove that it's even physically possible would be an achievement greater than those combined. We're not talking about overcoming some engineering obstacles in fields that we know very little about. We're talking about finding a way around well established theory. Granted we don't know everything, but this isn't a matter of simple development of science and technology. The best we can say about the possibility of information traveling faster than light are not much more then guesses and often involve black holes.

Comparing an reasonable understanding of gravity (something developed by Newton, by the way) or the technical difficulties associated with breaking the sound barrier to interstellar travel is ridicules.

Yeah, understanding Mars (the only other place in the entire universe that we as a species might be able to inhabit in the foreseeable future) better, especially in the subject of whether or not life has existed on it at all in its history, is completely pointless and a waste of resources. Gather 'round, children, Obi's going to explain to us how we could better spend our efforts in the best interest of humanity.

[Edit - "but finding microbes on Mars takes us no closer to that" - Obi, this is completely false. Finding microbes on Mars requires us to develop new and more sophisticated tools, and forces us to learn to use them and how to problem solve from a distance. Your statement is basically "This wheel gets us no closer to Rome." Obviously the wheel doesn't, the additions to the development and understanding of the wheel do however.]

Speaking of Phoenix: http://twitter.com/MarsPhoenix