Let's be realistic. The whole "international" thing will never work out.
Do you need to insult my opinion in order to vaunt your own? I am realistic - that is why I think we should wait until we have evolved more, before we run off and contaminate or destroy places we do not fully understand yet.

If all of these nations could, you know, work together, the issue of "who gets there first" would be irrelevant and resources could be evenly distributed. But I am realistic and I realize that is unlikely to happen. Humans are basically going to fight for every inch, instead of cooperate and logically and fairly divvy things up which would seem more rational. But humans are not very rational, are they? Yes, Helium will be in big demand shortly, because we need it to run MRI's and other life-saving technology, and Helium supplies on earth are almost exhausted.

America is not really in the "Space Race" like it used to be. NASA has been stripped to bare-bones and the shuttles have been retired. Private Enterprise wants to set up hotels orbiting earth to make money from the ultra rich, who are the only ones who will be able to afford to stay there.

War is the way life on earth settles things. How do we know anything about extraterrestrial concepts...? They may not need to have a "war." They may not even recognize us as sentient beings and it could be like "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" and they could just blast earth to put in a new highway. Who knows....? No one does.

Anyway, this is an interesting conversation but if you are going to condescend to me, why should I continue to discuss it with you?